Book 2MZ/i3 

Gopyiiglit N° 

copYKicHT deposit; 




EMORY MILLER. 



MEMOIRS AND 
SERMONS 



BT 

REV. EMORY MILLER, A.M., D.D.,LL. D. 

PUBLISHED AT THE REQUEST OF THE 
DES MOINES ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF 
THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH 



(CutctHmdi: 
JENNINGS AND GEAHAM 

EATON AND MAINS 



COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY 
JENNINGS & GRAHAM 




©CI. A 2 038X8 



Contents. 



Introduction, 7 

I. Family and Boyhood, - - - 11 
Birthplace — Mt. Pleasant, Pa. — Ancestry — 
Early Methodists — Sectarian storm center 
— Washingtonian movement — Foundry 
business — Methodist Hotel — Great 
preachers — Camp-meetings — Best Friend — 
Religious experience — Iowa — Family 
longevity. 

II. The Ministry, 38 

The Ministry — Licensed to exhort, Septem- 
ber, 1854; to preach, September 17, 1855 — 
Conviction of duty — MountVernon — Evans- 
ton — Broken health — Junior preacher — 
Admitted to the Iowa Annual Conference, 
September 13, 1858 — Disillusionment — First 
appointment by a bishop (Bishop Morris) — 
Muscatine Circuit — My excellent colleague, 
the Rev. John B. Hill — Talleyrand Circuit 
— Muscatine — Simpson Chapel — St. Louis 
—Franklin Circuit — Mob at Fenton — Un- 
fulfilled promise of a coat of tar and feath- 
ers — Bill Anderson — Quarterly Meeting at 
Piney; mob present, but offered no vio- 
lence, not even the promised ''coat," etc. 
— Capture of Camp Jackson — Boatmen's 
Chapel — Ebenezer Church, Burlington. 
3 



4 



CONTENTS. 



III. Upper Iowa Conference, - - - 74 

Transfer to Upper Iowa Conference— Cedar 
Rapids— Leclaire— Fourteenth St., Daven- 
port — Davenport District — Ecclesiastical 
politics — Appointed pastor over First and 
Fourteenth St. Churches — Clinton — Cedar 
Falls District — General Conference, 1876, 
Baltimore ; peaceful election ; amiable Con- 
ference — Cedar Rapids District — Strenu- 
ous Church politics — Unfair to blame the 
Church or discredit religion because of evil 
or misguided individuals or coteries — Ren- 
ovation of conditions essential — Limiting 
term of episcopal ofRce — Frequent change 
better than fossilization. 

IV. The Pastorate, . - . - 112 

Iowa City — Complex conditions — Demand for 
aggressive preaching — Resolutions by Offi- 
cial Board — Counsel in heresy case of Dr. 
H. W. Thomas, of Chicage — Dr. Thomas 
condemned — Triumph of literalism — Case 
appealed — Right of appeal forfeited by Dr. 
Thomas — Effect of trial — Unfortunate to 
both Church and Thomas. 

V. St. Paul, 131 

Sessions of Upper Iowa Conference, Septem- 
ber 20-26, 1882, Cedar Rapids— Bishop Wiley 
— His great affliction — Admirable self- 
control— Call to First M. E. Church, St. 
Paul, Minn. — Transferred by Bishop Wiley 
— Move to St. Paul — Find conditions un- 
favorable to success — Two years of failure 
—Call to First Church, Des Moines— No 
fight awaiting me — Delightful folk — Domi- 



CONTENTS. 



5 



nance of mental and moral culture — 
*'What does the Christian religion offer, 
more than the best moral culture?'^ — Re- 
vival of spirituality — Esther Frame — Theo- 
dore Gatchel — Des Moines Hospital — Evo- 
lution of love — Indianola — A great revival 
— Ecumenical Conference — Des Moines 
District — Indebtedness of Methodism to 
good horses — Horse talk in a livery office — 
Cares and qualifications of a District Su- 
perintendent. 

VI. Des Moines Distkict, - - - - 175 
Des Moines Conference, September, 1898 — 
Bishop Vincent — Close of my term Presid- 
ing Elder — Again Indianola — Denison — 
General Conference, May, 1904, Los Angeles 
— Incidents of the trip — Storm threatened 
regarding Destructive Criticism in the 
schools — Accusations fail of proof — Sur- 
prising report of Episcopacy Committee — 
Des Moines Conference Memorial smoth- 
ered — Lively politics — Sight-seeing — Home 
— Asbury, Des Moines — Three years here 
complete regular ministry — Semi-centen- 
nial sermon — Superannuate — Address of 
W. H. Shipman. 

Sermons, 205 

I. The Kingdom of Christ. 
II. Moses. 

III. The Agony of Jesus the Christ. 

IV. The Great Copartnership. 
V. Ambition. 



Introduction. 



On Saturday^ September 12, 1908, the occasion for 
preparing for publication this Book of Memoirs and 
Sermons arose in the Des Moines Conference in the 
form of the following resolution : 

^'Whereas, Our beloved brother, Eeverend Emory- 
Miller, is now retiring from the work of the active 
ministry, a work which has covered a period of fifty 
years, and which has brought him in touch with many 
distinguished men and women of both centuries ; and, 

^^Whereas^ His long and eventful life has brought 
him rich scholarship, a wide circle of readers, emi- 
nence as a preacher, and a great fund of reminiscence ; 
therefore 

''Resolved, That we request Brother Miller to pre- 
pare his autobiography, and that he be also requested 
to include in that work at least three of those ser- 
mons that have been regarded by his brethren as the 
most notable/^ — Minutes of Des Moines Annual Con- 
ference, September 9-14, 1908.) 

This action of the Conference took me quite by 
surprise. Indeed, it was hard for me to think it more 
than a kindly meant compliment. A very great 
compliment, indeed, and as I was led to believe by 

7 



8 



IKTEODIJCTIOTT. 



speeches made by brethren on the floor, and the evi- 
dent indorsement of these speeches by the assembled 
Conference, it embodied a genuine belief that I might 
contribute something worth preserving of this char- 
acter. My gratitude for this measure of appreciation 
is greater than I can express in words of formal 
thanks. I must depend for that upon a sincere effort 
to comply with the request to the extent I am able. 

The ministerial life is, I admit, peculiar in itself, 
and the career of an itinerant minister abounds in 
peculiarities, especially in the formative years of new 
communities. It has an indescribable medley of ex- 
citing adventures and painful drudgery ; sacred scenes 
and unspeakably funny instances of the ludicrous; 
spiritual depression and rapturous exultation; the 
keen fight with "the wolf at the door,^^ the tempter 
at the heart, and the materialistic, unsusceptible world 
about him. His great struggles, conquests, far-reach- 
ing defeats, or real victories are mostly within; j^et, 
all rounded and sweetened, endured or transcended 
through "the peace of God which passeth under- 
standing.^^ So fine, subtle, and fleeting is the quality 
of some of these experiences when related by the liv- 
ing subject, one can scarcely venture telling them in 
dead, cold type, but at the expense of their flavor. 

To write an interesting account of one's life, he 
needs to have done some work widely affecting public 
interests. Or, a life story of merely transient interest 
needs to be something more vivid, more crudely gro- 



INTEODXJCTION. 



9 



tesque or heroic than I can boast. ISTever having 
been a soldier or sailor, a frontiersman like Pinley, 
nor a belligerent like Cartwright, a converted infidel, 
actor, showman, saloonkeeper, cowboy, nor gambler, 
my life, with the ambition to accomplish what good 
I might with the least ado, has been rather common- 
place to afford a story of fascinating, not to say 
thrilling, interest. Nor have I been a special re- 
vivalist. If there was anything I coveted, it was the 
knack or gift of the genuine evangelist. But I was 
not fitted for this, unless it was in promoting favor- 
able conditions for evangelistic work. But I was in 
full accord with Dr. Lyman Beecher's terse remark: 
^^Learning is not the greatest thing. Theology is not. 
Philosophy is not, but winning souls is the greatest.^^ 
Never having kept a consecutive diary, I have felt 
a lack of preparation to write an autobiography ; and, 
with but little taste for that kind of reading, and 
not prone to devote much attention to reminiscence, 
I had preserved but little data of that sort. Any 
writing of this kind attempted by me must depend 
on a memory, though somewhat tenacious, not trained 
to close attention to names and dates. However, 
I am not disposed to undervalue the request of my 
brother ministers, but offer what I can in compli- 
ance with that request. While depending chiefly 
upon memory, with the disadvantage of advanced 
years, I nevertheless endeavor to be accurate in what 
is written. But as it can scarcely have the fullness 



10 



INTEODUCTION. 



of biography^ it were better to regard it as merely 
memoirs; and inasmuch as the Conference request 
included several sermons^ an appropriate title should 
be, MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 

Later conversations with ministers and laymen 
advise me to include a slightly larger number of 
sermons than proposed in the first request. 



CHAPTEK 1. 

Family and Boyhood. 

My birth and bringing-up were not in a city, nor 
in the country proper, but worse, in a little country 
town, Mount Pleasant, Westmoreland County, Penn- 
sylvania. On a low, long ridge, forty miles southeast 
of Pittsburg, and three miles west of Chestnut Moun- 
tain, the most westerly range of the Appalachians in 
Pennsylvania, this town grew up along the turnpike; 
and because of the drunkenness, brawling, fighting, 
and general wickedness which distinguished its early 
history^ it acquired the picturesque and appropriate 
name, Helltown. Cradled in the epoch of the Whisky 
Insurrection, its legends teemed with thrilling epi- 
sodes of feuds and fights, and often of heroic deeds 
and characters. But, so late as my earlier recol- 
lection, these characteristics had largely given place 
to belligerency of another sort, religio-sectarian, 
which made that region a storm center of doctrinal 
controversy in which the contending elements were 
mainly Calvinistic and Arminian, with variations re- 
garding baptism. Although smiting with clubs and 
fists of wickedness had long given place to the use 

11 



12 



MEMOIES AlsB SEEMONS. 



of less carnal weaponS;, many were yet ^^full of %ht/^ 
From among the burned-out embers of the Whisky In- 
surrection the spirit of reform had eventually sprung 
up in Western Pennsylvania, and anon swept over 
this town, rendering it well worthy of the namie 
under which it was incorporated, Mount Pleasant. 

My father, Samuel Miller, was a son of Henry 
Miller, who was born and reared in Lancaster County, 
Pennsylvania; later moved to Virginia, and eventu- 
ally to Mount Pleasant, where he owned and operated 
a pottery and brick plant, besides a number of freight- 
ing teams, which made their trips between Baltimore 
and Pittsburg. His father was Col. Henry Miller, 
who had been a lawyer, but raised a company, with 
which he joined Washington's army. He participated 
in the battles, marches, and hardships of that army, 
and, according to some writers, was promoted at the 
close of the Revolutionary War to the rank of briga- 
dier-general and assigned further military duty, and 
was a member of the Cincinnati, a society composed 
of officers of the patriot army. This family had, I 
think, descended from South German stock. 

My mother's maiden name was Mary Eicher, eld- 
est child of Henry Eicher and Margaret Gault. The 
Eichers had been, as nearly as I have been able to 
learn, Germans who during the persecutions fled 
from place to place and finally settled in Holland, 
where they continued until the rise of Daniel Eicher, 
who organized a colony in Holland and with it sailed 



FAMILY AND BOYHOOD. 13 



to America. My parents were Methodists, though 
mother had been brought up in the Mennonite faith 
of her ancestors, who had suffered persecution for 
their religion in Europe. One of her name, Conrad 
Eicher, was burned at the stake at Staffsburg, Swit- 
zerland, during Mennonite persecutions by the Eo- 
inan Catholics and Protestants, A. D. 1529. (See 
^^Memorials of the Huguenots in America,^^ by Eev. 
A. Stapleton, Wrightsville, Pa., page 109.) There 
is a tradition in our family that Daniel Bicher, my 
great-grandfather, bought Staten Island, or a con- 
siderable portion of it, from the British Government, 
and brought a colony from Holland and settled 
thereon. Tradition, I say, for the reason that during 
the Eevolution Daniel Eicher lost all his papers and, 
with his fellow colonists, all their property, except 
the clothes they were wearing when the British sol- 
diers, landing on Staten Island preliminary to their 
taking New York, drove them from their breakfast 
tables and looted their houses. According to their 
religious faith they were non-combatants as to war, 
and opposed to taking oath in civil courts; hence, 
never recovered their property. According to our 
information, Henry Eicher, my maternal grand- 
father, was born on Staten Island, and was about 
twelve years of age when they fled the island. "With 
his parents he found his way to Lancaster County, 
Pennsylvania, where he grew up and, later, settled 
in Fayette County of that State. 



14 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



These wanderers for conscience' sake, robbed and 
peeled, at last found peace and freedom in the be- 
nign domain of William Penn. "With little but 
soundness of character and physique, and habits of 
industry and frugality, they began anew the struggle 
for subsistence and religious liberty. Meantime, 
Adam Gault, from Coleraine, ISTorth Ireland, had 
married Eve Shafer, of Holland, and settled near 
the Eichers, in Lancaster County, and their daughter 
Margaret became the wife of Henry Eicher; and 
these were my mother^s parents. Of course the 
reader will not confuse this Adam and Eve with a 
certain other ancestral pair of like names, nor suspect 
me, in these days of search for long genealogies, of 
seeking to trace my line to the Edenic pair. Con- 
sidering the moral stamina of the two families, I am 
quite content with the shorter lineage, Dutch and 
German touched up with North Irish. 

Two characteristics of the saintly Mennonites 
were emphatic traits in my mother, namely, a deep 
sense of the turpitude of sin and the duty of self- 
repression. Telling me of her experience when she 
came to see her need of the Savior of sinners, she 
said, ^The very ground where I walked and the 
trees seemed to cry out against me.'' Although 
mother's experience was of the radical type, ingrained 
self-repression controlled her emotions and marked 
her as a quiet, undemonstrative, but strong, Chris- 
tian character. 



FAMILY AXD BOYHOOD. 



15 



When the Methodists of Mount Pleasant numbered 
less than one dozen they worshiped in the basement 
story of a plain dwelling house^ because of it being the 
most available place^ I presume, in view of their scanty 
funds and their trouble with rowdies, who often 
gave forceful vent to prejudices which they shared 
with more decent sectarian opponents. Yet, at the 
meetings of this handful of Methodists some "who 
came to mock remained to pray.^^ Mr. Woodcock 
led the meeting, mother led the singing, and father, 
more versatile, perhaps, and quite athletic, distributed 
his devotions from the penitents at the altar to the 
rowdies at the door. 

At one of their meetings a Miss Fee, with others, 
designated herself as a seeker after God by kneel- 
ing for prayer and counsel among these worshipers. 
Her stalwart brother, Tom Fee, stalked into the room, 
declaring he would fetch her out of that. As he 
was about to seize her, father leaped over the heads 
of the kneeling penitents and, grasping the intruder's 
throat, backed him out of the house and said, "Now 
go, or I '11 thrash you.'' Mr. Fee departed. 

Having grown up a belligerent in the interests 
of temperance and Methodism, father very naturally 
was made president of the first "Washingtonian Tem- 
perance Society" organized in Mount Pleasant, and 
was continued in that office many years. The growth 
of the band of Methodists, however, resulted in their 
building in a few years a substantial brick church, 



16 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



with its split-stone basement fitted up for school pur- 
poses- — ^the first house built for a schoolhouse in the 
town. Meantime my father's home had been a "stop- 
ping-place^' for ministers^ and continued so to be for 
nearly sixty years. No sacrifices or labor which my 
parents could render seemed to them too great to 
give their beloved Church; though, at times, so 
slightly appreciated by certain members or ministers 
as to seem pearls cast before swine. 

A paltry fragment of the former "Helltown^^ had 
been excluded from the incorporated borough of 
Mount Pleasant, not, however, to continue under that 
despicable name, but the milder designation, ^^Texas.'^ 
In the old-fashioned brick farmhouse adjoining this 
suburb I was born, December 23, 1834. From in- 
formation I could gather in later years I was re- 
garded a homely and awkward boy; and being the 
youngest boy in a large family, slow of speech and 
movement, was often a butt of fun and ridicule for 
my brothers. Indeed, I have often felt these disad- 
vantages in later years and intercourse with men. 
The boys were not prone to take me seriously, nor 
think I could ever be of much account. If I had not 
too easily accepted their estimate I might have been, 
perhaps, the gainer. However, with all my disad- 
vantages, I had one ministering angel whose un- 
failing solicitude gave me help and hope — my patient, 
brave, clear-headed, godly mother. In later years, 
with mingled smiles and tears she told me much of 



FAMILY AND BOYHOOD. 17 



her thoughts and hopes for me, her eighth son, midst 
all the disadvantages with which my earlier years 
had been beset. 

My father^s Methodistic bent would readily be 
seen in his having named one of his sons for the 
great commentator, Dr. Adam Clarke; another for 
the great preacher, Henry B. Bascom; and me he 
named for Bishop John Emory, omitting the John; 
the Church omitted the bishop. Bishop Emory was 
a native of Maryland. He was educated for the law 
and admitted to the bar, but ^^yielded to a call to 
preach.^^ On the 16th of December, 1835, having 
started in a light carriage from his home for Balti- 
more, was found unconscious by the roadside, his 
skull fractured; he died in the evening, not having 
regained consciousness. ^'^In temperament, ability, 
and accomplishments he differed from all his epis- 
copal colleagues and predecessors; he resembled Wes- 
ley in system, administrative ability, and mental 
clearness; and in general information and scholar- 
ship he was far superior to any Methodist of his time 
except Wilbur Pisk.'' (''History of Methodism,^' 
Buckley.) 

When I had passed my third birthday my father 
became principal partner and manager in the Mount 
Pleasant Iron Poundry, under the firm title, ''Miller 
and Lippencotts.^^ This occasioned our leaving the 
farm and moving into the residence at the foundry, 
located in the upper and better part of Mount Pleas- 

2 



18 MEMOIES Al^B SEEMONS. 



ant. In the course of years father became sole pro- 
prietor of the plant and business. My bringing up 
was thus mainly in the midst of the bustling asso- 
ciations incident to a large family^ increased by the 
addition of a number of hired men — molders^ black- 
smiths^ and teamsters — who^ except those who had 
families^ had their board and bed under our roof. 
This large household required considerable hired help 
in the house; hence^ mother was much preoccupied 
with managing her large indoor affairs^ as was father 
in directing those of the foundry^ machine shops, and 
the teaming incident to the establishment. 

While these conditions imposed severe limitations 
to their attention to the training of their children, 
it is due them to record that two things were not 
neglected, namely, keeping their boys actively em- 
ployed, either about the foundry, in the office^ or on 
the farm; and maintaining Church attendance and 
family worship. As to the first, we all learned the 
meaning of hard work. Pennsylvanians, so far as 
I knew them, were prone to overwork themselves and 
their children, especially their boys. In this trait 
my parents were true to type. The fact is, my hard 
work when a boy, I fear, prejudiced me somewhat, 
for I have never been fond of work since. Only 
he who has had the experience knows how relentless 
is the strife between an active conscience and a lazy 
body. Seriously, I think this thing was egregiously 
overdone by the old-time Pennsylvanians. The soil 



FAMILY AXD BOYHOOD. 



19 



was heavy, the utensils were heavy, the plows, har- 
row?;, and wagons were heavy, the harness (gears, 
as they called them) were distressingly heav}-. The 
roads were heavy when wet, and rough when dry. 
Whether working at the foundry or farm, or driving 
team, the work was rugged, hard work. But this 
was better, perhaps, even thus excessive, than to grow 
up in idleness or semi-idleness. Xext to sin, no per- 
sonal quality seemed to my parents so reprehensible 
as laziness. 

The assembling of the family and hired men 
and women in the dining room, before breakfast, for 
prayers was as regular as the breakfast itself. In 
like manner attendance at Church services on Sab- 
bath was obligatory upon the children and encour- 
aged in the hired help. Small or no representation 
of the family at the "Wednesday night prayer-meeting 
rarely occurred; never without some regretted cause. 
The strictness with which they observed the Sabbath 
and other religious duties is now practiced by but 
few, and ridiculed by many Church members. We 
were taught that Sabbath-breaking and dancing 
ranked with profane language, drinking, and gam- 
bling, and were not onlj^ sinful, but low and dis- 
graceful. Many smile at and perhaps pity me when 
I tell them I never attended a theater or a dance, 
never spoke a profane oath, know nothing of cards, 
and never sang a secular song or whistled a tune 
of any kind on Sunday. Though I have not re- 



20 MEMOIES AXD SEEMOJfS. 



quired my children to observe some of these forms 
of Sabbath keeping, nor nrged them in the pulpit, 
I have personally continued to practice them because 
of sacred associations. (Except, since in the min- 
istry, I have often blacked my shoes on Sunday.) 
These strict forms were molded in strenuous times 
when these tabooed practices were dominant charac- 
teristics of the scoffer and godless opposers of re- 
ligion; and the lines of discrimination needed to 
be drawn deep and hard to render the moral judg- 
ment acute in its effort to ^'^take the precious from 
the vile/^ To have done otherwise then and there 
would have appeared to us as going over to the 
heathenish practices of some of our neighbors, who 
were either remnants or descendants of the old '^'^Hell- 
town civilization/^ 

My father was what one would term a strong, 
though not sjTOmetrical character. His educational 
opportunities had been very meager. His three 
months at such schools as the Pennsylvania frontier 
afforded could do little more than start him into 
such additional home study as might barely answer 
for business affairs of that time, and such reading 
of the Bible and other religious books and papers 
as the plainest scholarship could appropriate. The 
home library contained, among other volumes, 
darkens Commentary, Wesley^s Works and Sermons, 
Fletcher's Appeal and '^^Checks to xlntinomianism,'^ 
Watson's Life of Wesley, the Life of Adam Clarke, 



FAMILY AND BOYHOOD. 21 



Bunyan^s Pilgrim's Progress^ etc., with a considerable 
number of later and smaller works^ mainly religions. 
With most of these books mother and he were fairly 
familiar. 

Natnre had given him an athletic frame^ large 
and active brain^ an unyielding will^ and a power- 
ful voice. He was inclined to be loud and demon- 
strative in manner, strong to undergo hardship, and 
impatient with laggards, dullards, and what seemed 
to him ovemice or inefficient folk. Dr. Waiefield 
once said to him, ^^There is at least one precept of 
the Bible which you faithfully practice: "^What thine 
hand findeth to do, do with thy might.' '' Another 
minister, after quietly observing the force and push 
he put into his business, ^aid, *^^Vell, may be you '11 
get to heaven." But he was brave, honest, indus- 
trious, frugal, and liberal; although imperious, often 
harsh, sometimes even irate. One could safely say, 
he never had a dollar not honestly acquired. He lost 
much by the carelessness, inefficiency, or dishonesty 
of others, and gave much away, especially to the 
Church. His lack of a fair estimate of education 
was a disadvantage, not only to himself, but to his 
children. Poverty is not so great an obstacle to a 
young man's acquiring an education or getting along 
well in the world as is repression by a well-to-do 
and masterful father who has little appreciation of 
learning beyond the three E's. The latter barrier 
is well-nigh insuperable. This I have thought the 



23 MEMOIES A^TD SEEMONS. 



most conspicnous mistake in my father's domestic 
government, and the greatest disadvantage with which 
his sons, with slight exception, had to contend. Of 
course he believed in learning as preparation for the 
^^earned professions/' but did not contemplate the 
entry of any of his sons, except the seventh, upon 
a profession, consequently made no provision for a 
collegiate course for any but that one. The strong 
hold which some of our most gifted, but self-edu- 
cated or but slightly educated, ministers had upon 
him had much to do with this under-estimate of 
learning which some of them shared with him. It 
is true, early Methodism grew more rapidly in its 
demand for preachers than its facilities for educating 
them ; and hence must needs employ many unlearned 
men in its ministry, depending upon their giving 
close attention to private study and the prescribed 
four years' course of ^^Conference Studies,'' and per- 
sistent habits of study thereafter. Many of these 
men attained respectable, and a few eminent, scholar- 
ship, but there were those who by dint of natural 
gifts became distinguished preachers, though never 
attaining marked scholarly tastes or reputation. 

The hospitality which our home always afforded 
ministers of the gospel was largely repaid in the in- 
tellectual and moral influence which the minister's 
presence and conversation exerted upon us boys. 
Even if, when riding their horses to water or down 
to the farm for the cows, we occasionally ascertained 



FAMILY AXD BOYHOOD. 



23 



which minister owned the fleetest horse, we took good 
care of the horses and revered the ministers none the 
less. A list of ministers who made my f ather^s house 
their abode when in the town would be a very long 
one. There were so many, and the visits of many 
were so frequent, that our house was facetiously 
termed the "Methodist Hotel.^^ Bascom, Waterman, 
Hodgson, and Asa Shinn had, before my day, oc- 
casionally visited our region, and I remember much 
of what father had to say of their great preaching. 
Conspicuous among those who greatly impressed me 
were Swayze, Sansom, Coil, "Wesley Smith, D. L. 
Dempsey, and Wm. Hunter. 

I have often wondered that not more of these 
eminent men were called to positions of wider in- 
fluence and opportunity in the Church. Swayze, the 
polished prince among them all, would have honored 
any position the Church could have given him, and 
might have given it noble service, instead of being 
sacrificed to the hard labor and physical exposure 
which hurried him to the grave from the splendors 
of his still-growing pulpit power. Sansom, one of 
the brightest minds and, naturally, the most eloquent 
preacher I have ever known, was scarcely known be- 
yond the territory of the Pittsburg and West Vir- 
ginia Conferences. His great aversion to city life 
partially accounted for this, perhaps, but a right 
policy that would have lifted him and given great, 
populous centers the benefit of his wondrous powers. 



84 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



could have put aside that aversion. It is not probable 
that any one who ever heard Sansom at his best 
could ever rid himself of the impression made by 
those ringings piercings burning sentences which, like 
lightning strokes, transfixed his hearers. He was not 
a revivalist in the sense of an adroit manipulator of 
an evangelistic meeting or campaign. But no man 
whom I have known left his track strewed so plente- 
ously with ^^awakened^^ sinners. From Dr. Hollings- 
head I quote but a scrap of his wonderful article on 
Sansom, in the Pittsburg Christian Advocate, Septem- 
ber^ 1900: ^^Sansom was the Patrick Henry of the 
pulpit. Without academic training or college drill 
or university polish^ he was peerless for purity of 
style^ clear and concise^ full of grace and ease in 
action, faultless in gesture, matchless in voice, power- 
ful and pathetic, picturesque and beautiful in the use 
of imagery, picking his words, saying things to strike 
and stick. In such dress he came before amazing 
crowds every inch a pulpit king. I sat next to Dr. 
L. D. Barrows, college president. His face was 
aglow, and at the close he said, ^Ifever did the Eng- 
lish language appear so rich and beautiful as when 
spoken by the lips of that man.^ 

The most conspicuous elements of his power were 
spiritual elevation, rare insight of human nature, 
great natural aptness in speech — ^the art of saying 
things — and a voice of indescribable charm and pene- 
trative force. The first was doubtless largely a re- 



FAMILY AKD BOYHOOD. 



25 



suit of his prayerful, Bible-reading life of faith. 
The others seemed to have their natural basis in a 
rarely organized body and brain. His genial dispo- 
sition, saintly character, and faculty for making ac- 
quaintances and remembering them, made him ex- 
ceedingly popular. In the power to move and shake 
vast audiences I have never heard his equal. As to 
scholarship he had little, but God made him a 
preacher, gifted with insight into human nature, a 
well-balanced, practical judgment and rich imagina- 
tion; but above all, a lofty and fiery soul. His ora- 
tory was neither Greek nor Eoman, but like that of 
the Hebrew prophets, reminding one of the lofty 
strains of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Habakkuk. But 
after all is said, there were at times passages in his 
sermons which seemed to cut loose from all prece- 
dent, the very abandon of rapture, swaying his audi- 
tors with the awe and wonder and glory of a seem- 
ing vision from heaven. Spiritual elevation, I would 
say, was the chief characteristic of his eloquence. 

The ^^old-time'^ camp-meeting afforded Sansom 
and Swayze the finest range for their most effective 
preaching; though I have been told of instances 
where to small but crowded audiences — ^in private 
dwellings and schoolhouses — they preached with won- 
drous power and effect. At a camp-meeting three 
miles from our town I witnessed what seemed to 
me the most extraordinary demonstration of pulpit 
speech, in quality and sustained power, I have ever 



26 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



heard. In expectation of a great crowd on Sunday, 
the management decided to fill the day — excepting 
needed time for meals — ^with preaching from the 
stand to prevent social levity and consequent dissi- 
pation of the spiritual interest of the meeting. The 
day was fine and the crowd great. The program 
opened at about 8.30 A. M., with a brief, winning 
sermon by Josiah Adams, followed by a testimony 
meeting and a brief recess. At ten Sansom resumed 
the service and announced the text, ^^This gospel of 
the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for 
a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end 
come.^^ (Matt. 24: 14.) He held the close attention 
of the people for about an hour and a half, by turns 
swayed by thrilling emotion, trembling awe, or joy- 
ous exultation. Closely following Sansom's closing 
sentence, Swayze arose and announced his text : "For 
what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole 
world and lose his own soul.^^ (Matt. 16 : 26.) One 
might think this bad management. Certainly, after 
the high tension experienced under Sansom^s sermon 
the people will relax their interest and drop away. 
But not so; one ringing sentence opened Swayze^s 
sermon with an electrifying thrill which drew the 
vast crowd, standing in the aisles and area at the 
head of the grounds, to press more compactly toward 
the stand. For near two hours sentence after sen- 
tence of vivid delineation and penetrating force, 
period upon period of gorgeous description poured 



FAMILY AND BOYHOOD. 27 



forth with masterful charm until the close of the last 
flowing, rolling period left the enchanted throng to 
recover from the thrall of the preacher's power. 
Sansom had established a divine atmosphere ; Swayze 
awed the people with a sense of the divine majesty, 
and their eternal interests. 

There is immediate dismission. To their tents, 
tables, and lunch baskets the people haste, for it is 
well-nigh two o'clock, and Wakefield is announced 
to preach at three. Many leave for their homes, but 
a large audience remains, and the solid old logician 
sets before them life and death, blessing and cursing 
(Deut. 30:19) in clear, calm, convincing reasoning 
which, though in marked contrast with the eloquence 
of Sansom and Swayze, did not seem to lower the 
spiritual interest nor impair the persuasive power of 
the meeting, but rather crystallized the molten flood 
of the morning hours. The evening closed in upon 
a scene of mingled joy and solemnity, buoyant hope 
and solicitude in expectation of a mighty effort to 
move the will to decisive action in scores who had 
been charmed and awed, troubled and convinced by 
the services of the day. Now the great crowd had 
gone. Now the time of action had come. Eev. Wm. 
Lynch was the preacher, and well he filled his as- 
signed place. His text was: ^^Behold, I stand at 
the door and knock; if any man hear My voice and 
will open the door, I will come in to him, and will 
sup with him, and he with Me.'' (Eev. 3:30.) 



28 MEMOIES AND SERMON'S. 



With marked clearness and force the meaning of the 
text was set out, and its practical and urgent appli- 
cation driven home with great earnestness and mov- 
ing power. The invitation given, scores press to the 
altar, and here and there at various points on the 
grounds groups are kneeling in prayer with penitents 
seeking to break away from a worldly, and turn to a 
devoted, godly life. The scene is memorable — ^the 
majestic forest, the many and well-arranged lights 
and fires, the snowy tents, the fervid prayers and 
penitential hymns; eventually the prevailing faith, 
the change of heart, the glowing, often angelic ex- 
pression of faces lately drawn in penitence, now 
radiant with the dawn of a new inner life. Now they 
understand Chrisf s word, ''The Kingdom of heaven 
is within you/' 

Swaj^ze^s eloquence differed from that of San- 
som. His sentences were more polished, his vocabu- 
lary more extensive and classic, and his pronunci- 
ation more accurate. His great sermons seemed 
to have been written and memorized. His noble 
presence, rich voice, faultless manner, and rhythmic 
style, combined with a spirit which evinced the fire 
of the real orator, enthralled his hearers. Sansom 
was nature's darling child. From what I have read 
and heard of Father Taylor, the great ^^sailor 
preacher'^ of Boston, I infer he and Sansom were 
very much alike in mental and spiritual type. 

Gradually Methodism won its way into this 



FAMILY AND BOYHOOD. 29 



region, and the early camp-meetings, held, not as 
religio-pleasure resorts, but in very need of churches 
sufficiently large and numerous, had much to do with 
this advance. The faithful few in Mount Pleasant 
who had worshiped in the humble basement, beset 
by rowdies, had added to their numbers and built 
their comfortable church, and now had regular min- 
istration by the circuit pastors, and occasional visits 
and mighty sermons from such as Sansom, Swayze, 
Waterman, and Bascom. Thirty-six years ago, when 
I visited the place, it contained more church sittings 
than people to occupy them, including their usual 
countryside attendance. 

This reformation was traceable to the devotions 
of the unpretentious basement, but was most con- 
spicuously promoted by one of the camp-meetings 
near the town, which had developed such an interest 
that many who had gone with the crowd on Sunday 
out of curiosity were deeply convicted of sin and 
their righteous duty. Many of them were converted 
there, and many others, when the camp-meeting had 
closed, cried out for mercy in their homes. Again 
and again were my parents called at dead of night 
to go and pray for these neighbors, many of whom 
had scoffed at or ridiculed their devotional meetings. 
This revival recast the town, both as to spiritual life 
in the Churches and the salvation of hitherto god- 
less families. It was a strange experience to see 
the ^^amen corners^^ occupied on Sundays by our 



30 MEMOIES AXD SEEMONS. 



middle-aged and elderly neighbors who for years 
had ridiculed and cursed the Church. Many vio- 
lently irreligious families whom I could name be- 
came seekers after God^ and ultimately faithful mem- 
bers and workers in the good cause there and in other 
Churches and States. This reformation was not 
confined in its fruits to the Methodist Church, but 
stirred other Churches, quickened their spiritual life, 
added to their membership, and in a great degree 
broke down their prejudices against the Methodists. 
There were manj' instances, however, of parents cast- 
ing off their sons and daughters for joining the 
Methodists. 

The best thing I have to say of myself is, that 
in the plain brick church of that town I found my 
best Friend. The passage from the consciousness of 
condemnation to that of peace and heart-change was, 
after a prayerful wrestle of two days, instantaneous 
and so definite as to mark the place and time, Janu- 
ary 6 (1847), as a glorious experience. It was 
an epoch in my life in which I perceived Christ 
as my Friend and Savior. Though over sixty years 
have since passed, the remembrance of that psychic 
change remains undimmed and hallows the time and 
place which were made luminous and sacred by that 
change. 

0, sacred hour, hallowed spot, 
Where Love Divine first found me ! 

Wherever falls my distant lot, 
My heart shall linger round thee.'^ 



FAMILY AND BOYHOOD. 31 



The waters of repentance are like a stream which 
flows sometimes in a wide and shallow, and anon 
in a deep and narrow channel between high and 
abrupt banks. The hither bank is the feeling of 
self-condemnation for sin; and the farther bank is 
the feeling of relief from condemnation, it is sal- 
vation begun. The hither bank of self-condemna- 
tion seems high, dark, and precipitous in proportion 
to one^s sense of sin^s enormity; and the effort to 
break away is apt to be attended with doubts and 
fears, sometimes intense struggle. But, the passage 
once gained, from this bold, sheer self-condemnation 
to the opposite bank of ^^saving faith^^ the change 
is radiant with the ^^joy of salvation.^^ The at- 
tendant emotions aroused by the struggle incident to 
the depth and abruptness of these opposite shores 
intensify the experience and give definiteness and 
often rapture to the change. One who has experi- 
enced can never forget it. The "glory of condemna- 
tion^^ is surpassed by the "greater glory'^ of re- 
generation and the power to live a new life. 

With others the sense of sin and repentance is 
like a gradually descending shore. It stoops al- 
most imperceptibly to cross the same stream; and 
the ford, though wide, is not deep, and the opposite 
shore reaches out into the shallow waters so gently 
and far that the soul is scarcely aware when and 
where decisive faith is reached and salvation is 
surely begun. The emotional effect in such case 



32 MEMOIES AXD SEEMONS. 



usually, perhaps invariably, is not so exalted, nor 
the evidence of change so abrupt and demonstrative, 
yet may be equally genuine and steadfast. 

To say I have maintained this experience, clear 
and steadfast, all through these years would be a 
deliberate untruth. Lapse from it has rarely been 
abrupt, but a drift in mental temper, usually un- 
suspected, unperceived at first, and then fascinating, 
beguiling, self-satisfying. Even the joy of salvation 
is apt to bring satisfaction with one*s then present 
state, and anon a pure self-love which rightly seeks 
to become a better self, settles down into satisfaction 
with actual, present self, and thus degenerates into 
selfishness, sin. Then is the temptei'^s ^^hour and 
power of darkness.*^ The inner sky is overcast, 
the Daystar eclipsed ! Having anon drifted into 
a relaxation of faith, from that strenuous exercise 
of faith which had grasped the first experience of 
regeneration and the renewing of childlike innocence, 
by the Holy Spirit, I awakened to a definite con- 
sciousness of having backslidden in heart, although 
religious observance and practice, study of the Bible, 
and enthusiastic advocacy of the faith and doctrine 
had been regularly and sincerely kept up. But at- 
tention sharply fixed upon the question of the sub- 
jective knowledge of being saved from sin evoked 
the souFs inmost plaint, ^TVhere is the blessedness 
I knew when first I saw the Lord?^^ 

To rest in this state, terming it ^^justification,^^ 



FAMILY AND BOYHOOD. 33 



would seem sacrilegious. Duty was self-evident, and 
its behest cried, "Back to the point of evil departure, 
back to the beguilement of religious enjoyment, back 
to the selfish attempt to garner up the manna of 
emotional religious fervor or where one has in- 
wardly said, "Soul, take thine ease, thou art having 
a good time;^^ back to the inner court, where Self, 
the usurper of God^s throne in the soul, has re- 
established his rule, and there acknowledge your 
backsliding, and by penitent self-renunciation and 
reconsecration drag the usurper from the chief seat 
in your affections, God^s rightful throne. Thus re- 
pentance and redevotement have regained "the peace 
of God which passeth understanding.^^ 

The increase of religious knowledge, with larger 
and stronger diameter of religious habit which had 
in the meantime been gained, made this second 
consecration a larger, wider, and deeper experience 
than the first, because of the larger perceptions 
of faith which grasped anew the ideal Christian life; 
insomuch it seemed a new and nobler conscious- 
ness of godliness. Perhaps some would regard this 
a "second distinct work,^^ but, marked as it has been, 
I can discern in it a difference of degree only, not of 
kind, or moral quality, from the first experience. 
So, whenever the inner sky of consciousness is over- 
cast, the like heart searching, at the same mercy 
seat, with the same renunciation of self, has brought 
the same luminous love of God and intent to "abide 

3 



34 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



in Christ/^ This experience, I take it, is the soul's 
re-enactment of the first surrender of the self-con- 
structed ideal of life and character, and its accept- 
ance of the Christ-given ideal instead. St. Paul 
states it, ^'I press on, if so be that I may lay hold 
on that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ 
Jesus.^^ (Phil. 3:12.) 

After having gone through the common school 
studies several times — spelling, reading, writing, 
geography, arithmetic, and English grammar — I was 
permitted to attend winter terms at the recently 
founded Mount Pleasant College. Here I got a 
fair start in Greek and Latin, studied mathematics 
to spherical trigonometry, also natural philosophy 
and chemistry. Thus at the age of nineteen I was 
fairly launched upon a classical course; but moving 
with my parents to the new State of Iowa, my course 
of study was unfortunately interrupted. 

But over these matters I had no control. It 
would have been grateful to me to have moved to 
the East instead of the West, in view of the superior 
opportunities it would have afforded my brother and 
sister who were yet at home, as well as myself. But 
to the West we came, and in the West have stayed 
and have experienced many of the advantages and 
disadvantages of this great, buoyant, enthusiastic 
country. It has not been my dreamed-of career, but 
whether for better or worse God only knows; I do 



FAMILY AXD BOYHOOD. 



35 



not presume to judge. Some would say it was an 
intervention of Providence which sent me here. I 
am inclined^ however, to think it was providential 
in the sense that it was the best Providence could do 
with me after the intervention of father^s move, 
aggravated by my own shortcomings. 

Yet it was not mine to complain, but I entered 
into the enthusiasm of Western life with genuine 
zest and a desire to make the best of whatever might 
come. A point of view ^"^on the other side of Jordan^^ 
will give us, I suspect, a better understanding of 
the whole matter. Whatever I may have missed by 
not going East, I am sure I would be sorry to have 
missed many of the interesting and blessed associa- 
tions of the West. 

Of my six brothers who grew up, one received 
a classical education at Mount Pleasant and Alle- 
gheny Colleges. Five of them attained such knowl- 
edge of English branches as our common schools 
afforded, meanwhile mastering some special line in 
iron work. Four were good molders, one became a 
master machinist. After we all moved to the West 
the pursuits of some of them took a new direction. 
Two became farmers, a third returned East to take 
a position as a machinist in the employ of the Penn- 
sylvania Eailway. Another went to Ohio as a dealer 
in oil properties, but ultimately contented himself 
as an accountant. One of the farmers, Alexander 



36 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



J.^ assisted in raising a regiment, the 6th Iowa In- 
fantry, and entered the Union army as a lieutenant 
and was promoted gradually until reaching the rank 
of lientenant-colonel. By this time his regiment had 
become so reduced in numbers by singularly severe 
fighting and campaigning that its officers could not 
be promoted. He continued in command of this regi- 
ment through the third year, although during much 
of this time he was assigned the duties of a brigadier- 
general. He commanded all of General Sherman's 
mounted forces in the movement of the Army of 
the Tennessee from Memphis to Grant's left at 
Mission Eidge. After the second bloody repulse of 
that wing, in which many officers were either killed 
or wounded. Col. Walcott and he led a third and 
successful advance of Sherman's left wing in that 
important victory. William Edward entered upon 
practice at the bar, and became Chief Justice of the 
Supreme Court of Iowa. 

My only full sister, Eliza Armel Miller, younger 
than I by over two years and a half, was educated 
at Cornell College, Mount Vernon, Iowa. She mar- 
ried Mr. W. S. Hallock, a former student of the 
same institution. He was a newspaper editor in Mis- 
souri, and later at Harriman, Tennessee. For many 
years prior to her death her health was very delicate 
and resulted in her decease by weakness of the heart, 
at Harriman, April 6, 1896, then in her fifty-ninth 



FAMILY AND BOYHOOD. 37 



year. Ours was a large family^ but now all except 
myself are gone. Our forebears had evinced marked 
longevity. My Grandfather Miller attained eighty- 
five years of age^ my father nearly the same. Mother 
died in her ninety-third year^ and her father in his 
ninety-ninth. Only two of my brothers attained four- 
score years. 



CHAPTEE 11. 



The Ministry. 

The ministry now became the next epoch in my 
career. In my twentieth year, just before we moved 
to the West, our pastor. Rev. E. B. Griffin, presented 
me with a certificate of license to exhort, dated Sep- 
tember 17, 1854. He said he thought it would open 
the way in the West for my entering the ministry. 
What led him to think I should enter the ministry 
I never learned. A year later, September 17, 1855, 
the Quarterly Conference of Iowa City Methodist 
Church, after examination by the presiding elder, 
Eev. Alcinus Young, in the presence of the Con- 
ference, gave me license to preach the gospel. Yet 
I was slow to avail myself of these openings to a 
career so important, and for which I more and more 
felt unfit. But as opportunity opened up to attend 
the schools at Mount A^ernon and Evanston, I be- 
came more fully committed, as well as better pre- 
pared, to go forward in what had come to appear 
plainly my duty. 

When, after one year at Garrett Biblical Insti- 
tute, I returned home with broken health, inter- 

38 



THE MIJ^ISTEY. 



39 



rapted plans for a more nearly adequate education 
beset me. However, a naturally stout constitution 
encouraged me i>o believe that with a few months 
on the farm my health would be in a measure re- 
stored, although a well-defined if not confirmed dys- 
peptic on the verge of nervous prostration. The fact 
that I had not graduated I deplored, yet the habit 
of self-reliant study and an ever deepening interest 
in Biblical knowledge, I felt might to some degree 
make up this loss. While thus ruminating possi- 
bilities, and meanwhile engaging in such farm work 
as I could do, and enjoying the change from insti- 
tute ^^grub^^ to mother^s cooking, I was visited by 
the presiding elder, the Eev. E. W. Twining, of 
the Iowa Conference, who at that time appointed 
me assistant, or junior, pastor of Pleasant Valley Cir- 
cuit; of which the Eev. A. W. Strj^ker was pastor 
in charge. This circuit embraced ten preaching 
places in a territory which was bounded on the north 
by the Eock Island Eailway, on the other sides by the 
Iowa and Cedar Elvers, and bisected by the Wap- 
sinonoc, and broken in many places by smaller 
streams and bayous. This was in March of 1858, 
a season rendered memorable for much rain and high 
water. The nearly constant rain and inundation 
from the rivers and creeks made the traveling largely 
a matter of wading mud knee-deep and often water 
to the saddle-skirts, and occasionally crossing the 
rivers by canoe or skiff and swimming the horse. 



40 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



The rivers were so high and wide that I did not 
venture in the saddle to swim them. Narrating these 
features of my initiatory experience is not an at- 
tempt to rival the stories of hardship and heroism 
related by the early itinerants^ but simply to suggest 
my rather dolorous initiation into the itinerant min- 
istry. Whether to kill or cure, I took the medicine, 
cheered with the belief that I was in the line of 
duty. For the six months which I spent in this 
work I received as pay a cheap satinet coat, a pair 
of cowhide boots^ and eight dollars in money. Nor 
did I gain much comfort in the thought that perhaps 
the preaching was as poor as the pay. But the 
problem of health began to turn in my favor. The 
rough exposure improved my appetite, and horse- 
back riding, to which I had been accustomed from 
childhood, toned up my nerves and, although the 
process was slow, at the end of six months I was 
surely on the way to recovered health. Although 
the work was hard and the pay meager, my hearers 
were not critical, but, I think, made due allowance 
for what, as they termed me, a ^^Deardless boy^^ might 
say, and were kind enough to encourage me by at- 
tending the services in goodly numbers. My col- 
league, the pastor in charge, was a really able preacher 
and fitted for a far better grade of appointments 
than the scanty salary, the crude people, and, to him, 
the health-breaking hardships this circuit afforded. 
But I have found that one of the first qualifica- 



THE MINISTEY. 



41 



tions of an itinerant minister is the catlike ability 
to alight on his feet wherever thrown by the bishop. 
This good, uncomplaining, though indignant man 
had this catlike faculty, and by the excellent man- 
agement and hard work of himself and wife cared 
for their large family, and by his excellent adapta- 
bility had a mighty revival which revolutionized 
that region. It was this revival that so enlarged 
the demands of the charge that an assistant pastor 
was required. Such a man, like his Lord, can make 
the blunders as well as the wrath of men praise him, 
because he will do good wherever he goes. This good 
man often encouraged me by telling me how well 
pleased the people were with my efforts to preach, 
but occasionally added this warning, ^^But don^t 
get the bighead; they don^t know much.^^ 

The Quarterly Conference of this circuit recom- 
mended me for admission to the Iowa Annual Con- 
ference, which was to hold its next session in Fair- 
field the ensuing autumn. On September 13, 1858, 
I was accordingly admitted on trial and became a 
regularly installed itinerant minister. This was 
the first time it had ever been my privilege to at- 
tend the session of an Annual Conference, and you 
may be sure I watched its proceedings with deep 
interest and studied the prominent men carefully. 
My parents had always taught their children by 
precept and example to revere our ministers. Hence 
I thought that at this Conference I was among able 



I 



42 MEMOIES AXD SEEMONS. 

and saintly men^ and I viewed Bishop Morris and 
the presiding elders with well-nigh poetic fancy as 
^^quite on the verge of heaven, where angels have 
their birth/' 

While thus with reverential attention I noted the 
progress of Conference business, the "call of the 
districts'' began. One presiding elder, having been 
called, gave an offhand, general report of his dis- 
trict which impressed me that the Churches over 
which he presided must be exceedingly prosperous, 
if not in a blaze of glory. Then came the "passing 
of the ministerial character" of each preacher in his 
district, and each one took his hat and walked out 
when his name was called. The first one was scarcely 
outside the door, I think, when his presiding elder 
launched into a eulogy of him which filled me with 
wonder that so great a man could live in Iowa with- 
out my having heard of him; and I determined to 
mark him well when he came in, for surely he must 
be the great man of the Conference. Ere he re- 
turned another name was called, another man 
walked • out, and another eulogium which seemed 
to surpass the first was indulged in by the presiding 
elder. When the third and fourth were thus com- 
mended in terms far beyond what father had used 
when impressing my boyish imagination with his 
accounts of the great preaching of Bascom and 
Barnes and Waterman, I wondered if this presiding 
elder could have all the great preachers of the Con- 



THE MimSTEY. 



43 



ference in his district. Later I found this was not 
half true, but the whole truth was that these florid 
representations were merely idiosyncrasies of this 
elder, and that each man in his district expected 
his baptism of ^^ush^^ when his name was called. 
Then it seemed no wonder each took his hat and 
left the house. But as this thing continued and the 
other presiding elders represented the pastors in their 
districts in like manner, though less extravagant than 
the first, I began to think this be-praising must be 
characteristic of the West, but found later that I 
was remarkably verdant and that these eulogistic 
presiding elders were shrewd men; and the retiring 
from the Conference room by each pastor when his 
name was called was a custom intended to admit 
of free discussion of his ministerial character. This 
was the beginning of another process in my minis- 
terial education, a process which, for lack of a better 
phrase, I termed ^^The shriveling of giants.'^ 

Passing by all these be-praised brethren who had 
undergone ^^passage of character,^^ there were men 
here, representing the general enterprises of the 
Church, whose names I had grown familiar with 
from their frequent appearance in the Church 
papers. Among these I found much to admire, 
much to learn, and in some of them much that was 
disappointing. When the time came to read the 
appointments, as fixed by the bishop in council with 
the presiding elders, all were intensely interested. 



44 MEMOIRS AND SERMONS. 



Doubtless a few knew where they were to be as- 
signed, but many, perhaps a large majority, were 
in the dark on that subject until the bishop read 
out their appointments. Like the others, I eagerly 
waited, and finally thought myself happy when the 
bishop pronounced, ^^Muscatine Circuit — John B. 
Hill, Emory Miller/^ This was my first appoint- 
ment by a bishop, the beginning of my career in 
the "regular ministry/^ All my former work, pro- 
visionally termed "ministeriaV^ had been prepara- 
tory and led up to this. 

Muscatine Circuit. — This proved a fortunate 
appointment for me. Eev. John B. Hill, the pastor 
in charge, was one of God^s true saints. He had 
moved from West Virginia and had been appointed 
to this same Muscatine Circuit one year before, and 
with his family occupied the parsonage at Wilton, 
the head of the circuit. His brotherly welcome 
helped me greatly to overcome my embarrassment 
incident to beginning in this new field. Of all the 
years of my ministerial life, none has been more 
pleasant than this. The circuit embraced eleven 
places of regular Sabbath preaching. We preached 
three times each Sabbath, covering the whole every 
two weeks. Besides these, we had occasional week- 
night services at other points. Sunday work was to 
ride horseback from ten to twenty miles and hold 
three preaching services; and, additionally sometimes, 
to go to Muscatine in the evening and supply the 



THE MINISTRY. 



46 



pulpit of the city pastor, who was ill. But the 
regular work of three Sabbath services, with the 
horseback rides, did not prove overwork. The 
preacher in charge did most of the pastoral visiting, 
transacted the business, and bore the responsibility 
of administration. Thus my duties were little be- 
yond study, attending prayer-meeting, and trying to 
preach. The people generally were well-to-do farmers 
in the country, and mechanics, clerks, and shop- 
keepers in the small towns. My labors and associ- 
ations with the people yielded me in after years 
happy recollections of Muscatine Circuit, although 
my salary was but one hundred and fifty dollars, be- 
sides board and lodging. 

Perhaps the fact that in one of the rural homes 
of this circuit I met the beautiful girl who after- 
ward became my wife had much to do with founding 
these pleasurable recollections. But to Rev. John 
B. Hill, the senior pastor, I owe a debt of lasting 
gratitude for his godly example, wise counsels, and 
fatherly encouragement. Of all the men of my in- 
timate acquaintance he has seemed to me scarcely 
equaled as a patient, spiritually-minded, transparently 
true and Christlike man. He still lives, at the age 
of eighty-six, and occasionally preaches, although 
having been a superannuate for six or eight years. 
Since writing the above, the announcement comes that 
this man of God has died at his home in Agency, 
Iowa, December 3, 1909, aged eighty-seven years. 



46 MEMOIES Al^B SEEMOI^S. 



Talleyrand. — At the next Conference session, 
held at Muscatine, September, 1859, Bishop Simp- 
son presiding, I was appointed pastor in charge of 
Talleyrand Circuit. Talleyrand was a village situ- 
ated fourteen miles directly west of Washington, 
Iowa. It was the head of a circuit which had the 
shape somewhat of a flying crane, extending north- 
ward some thirty miles, with wings of about five 
miles each way, east and west. It was a new circuit, 
organized but the year before, and of frontier char- 
acter. Some members of the Conference — well I 
will say, ^^fathers;^^ I dislike the term '^^bosses'^ — 
who, I was told, had thought I was inclined to be 
^^scholarly,^^ "^^fine-haired,^^ ^^needed breaking in,^^ 
now had me situated to their taste. However, the 
people of this circuit numbered among them a few 
families of intelligence from Eastern States, though 
the larger number were typical frontier settlers. 
Their limited opportunities led them to turn out 
well to Church services, many coming distances 
ranging from three to six miles. There was a good- 
sized Presbyterian church in Talleyrand in which 
we were permitted to worship. At the four other 
appointments we held our services in schoolhouses. 
The winter proved extremely severe, with frequent 
blizzards, deep snows, and low temperatures. On 
one occasion when, having visited my parents and 
friends fifty miles away, and having been persuaded 
by my sister to stay one day longer than I had 



THE MINISTEY. 



47 



planned, I mounted my horse at Iowa City on Friday 
morning in a fierce northwest wind, with the ther- 
mometer at twenty degrees below zero, and rode 
twenty-five miles to Washington. It was a severe 
test, but I reached Washington without harm other 
than feeling desperately chilled. Saturday morning 
dawned with increased cold, and the pastor at Wash- 
ington, Eev. John Harris, besought me not to at- 
tempt the fourteen miles further to Talleyrand. 
Said he, ^'I am to have watch-night services to- 
night, and you would better stay and preach for 
me and by morning the weather will in all proba- 
bility have modei^ated, and you can then ride out 
to Talleyrand (by 10.30) for your service/^ This 
was plausible and, with the intense cold of Saturday, 
persuaded me to stay and take the chances for milder 
weather next morning. So we went through the 
watch-night meeting; and the presiding elder, resi- 
dent there, claiming me as his guest, took me to his 
house to lodge. We retired about one o^clock and 
rose at four. The cold had become more intense, 
and the good ^^elder^^ would have dissuaded my going, 
but I knew my parishioners for miles around would 
be at the church with sleds, sleighs, and wagons; 
I only was responsible for being so far away from 
the appointed service; I must not disappoint them. 
After a good, warm breakfast which the good Mrs. 
Twining had ready by the time I was dressed, I 
mounted my horse, ready at the door, and turned 



48 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



my face westward against a steady, cutting wind. 
My course was directly west for fourteen miles, 
mostly open, undulating prairie. The cold was in- 
tense. How low was the temperature when I started 
I did not learn, but at sunrise the thermometer read, 
I was told, twenty-eight degrees below zero. My 
horse was a good mount for the occasion — a smooth 
trotter and tough as whalebone — and I let him trot 
uphill, downhill, and on the level. If I had had a 
good nighf s sleep before undertaking this ride I 
might have endured it better. But I was well 
wrapped, and the motion of the horse tended to 
keep my blood in active circulation. When I ar- 
rived at Talleyrand I rode directly to the house of 
Dr. Pritcherd, who, seeing my approach, met me and 
opened the gate, helped me to roll off the horse, 
and, taking the sweating animal to the bam, left 
me to manage, by holding to the fence and house, 
to make my way into the door. The chill had ren- 
dered me unable to stand or walk without support, 
but Mrs. Pritcherd helped me unwrap, and soon the 
doctor took off my shoes and socks and, finding my 
feet somewhat frostbitten, thawed them gradually 
and bathed them with whisky, but administered none 
internally. In a word, I was in good shape in an 
hour or two from the time of my arrival at Dr. 
Pritcherd^s, and we walked to the church on time 
and found a large congregation eager to hear even 
such preaching as I could give them; and I seemed 



THE MINISTEY. 



49 



none the worse for my long and cold morning ride. 
Thirteen miles further and two more preaching serv- 
ices completed the day^s work. Many times I had 
helped in song and prayer and trying to preach 
for days and nights at camp and other revival meet- 
ings, and though often tired and worn, I had never 
experienced the least sense of weariness in my lungs. 
But after this day's exposure and work I became 
aware of lungs and their need of care and rest. 

Many trips through storms and snowdrifts had to 
be taken, the sight and sound of wolves were frequent, 
and occasionally I startled the wild deer or other 
game as I traversed this sparsely settled, storm- 
swept circuit. The people were generally "whole- 
souled'^ and hospitable and gratefully shared with me 
the best they had. In most cases it was nice, clean, 
and comfortable; in some it was scanty and "x:heer- 
less, and in a few the beds were filthy and the food 
crude and disgusting, many times resulting to me 
in violent nausea. My chief consolation in such 
cases was that I ate dirt, slept in foul beds, and en- 
dured exposure for Christ^s sake; ^^that by all means 
I might save some.'^ 

There were enough of these cases to make my 
term on this charge an era of dirt eating. At one 
of these preaching places, after a five o'clock service, 
I went, upon invitation, to have tea and stay the 
night with an educated gentleman who was a large 
farmer and, with his wife, a member of the Church. 

4 



50 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



Their center-table, by its profusion of books, peri- 
odicals, and newspapers, evinced general intelligence. 
The house was a clever pioneer affair, a cruciform 
frame, the boards set on end and battened, with 
earth heaped against the walls all around outside. 
As they had taken their tea before the Church serv- 
ice, the table was spread for me alone — a simple 
meal of tea, warm biscuit, butter, and cookies. Al- 
though wearied from the three services of the day, 
I could have eaten a hearty meal, but for attending 
circumstances; lack of ventilation gave the house 
an atmosphere anything but appetizing. The first 
bite into the biscuit was a poser, a shock. If you 
have ever breathed the fumes from a tallow candle 
which, having burned down to the socket of a brass 
candlestick, and being extinguished and left for 
hours, is lighted again, you will know exactly the 
taste and smell of that biscuit. It had, I believe, 
been shortened with rancid fat kept in a brass kettle. 
What was I to do ? I could easily go without supper, 
but I must not wound the feelings of these good 
people, .and I must not lie. I swallowed part of 
the biscuit, and tried the cookies, but alas! their 
sweetening only rendered more nauseous the same 
shortening, evidently, which larded the biscuit. The 
tea was good, and I drank copiously to quell the 
nausea and help out the question of courtesy. When 
retiring, I was given a bed in the ell part of the 
house. This had the earth for a floor, and but one 



THE MINISTEY. 



61 



window, a mere transom, closed. Here, too, were 
numerous things which accounted for the odors afloat 
in the other parts of the house, as also for the peculiar 
taste of the supper; fleeces of unwashed wool, barrels 
containing soap grease, and my suspected acquaint- 
ance, the brass kettle with its grease. But that little 
window was closed and the air was dreadful. After 
covering up in bed and trying to rest, it was not 
long before rats began to scamper about in this 
loathsome den, and at various times upon and across 
my bed. To render the night even more hideous, 
those two boys occupying another bed in that room 
quarreled and fought again and again, suggesting 
a pair of demons or furies. At last I endured through 
the loathsome darkness of that night and, long before 
any one of the family was up, I dressed and made 
my way to the open air. Climbing to the top of a 
high fence near by, I rested and thanked God for 
pure air, and pondered how I might make excuse 
from breakfast and get away without hurting the 
feelings of my hosts. But it was in vain ; breakfast 
came, and with it, as I now remember, potatoes 
boiled with skins on, and light bread innocent of 
lard and verdigris. Getting decently away, I never 
had occasion to visit the place again. This, I think, 
was the most helplessly disagreeable pastoral visit 
of my entire experience. 

Sorghum. — Any one who remembers its first in- 
troduction and use in Iowa will smile, if he does 



52 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



not weep, at the mention of sorghum. This sorghum 
period was the period of hard times in Iowa, espe- 
ciallj^ with these pioneer farmers. But ther found 
in it a sort of shifty relief in many of their needs. 
With their corn bringing them but ^^ten cents a 
bushel/^ pork but a cent and a half a pound, and 
other farm products in proportion, they were but 
poorly able to buy the cheapest groceries, to say 
nothing of sweets or orchard fruits. Hence, sorghum 
was seized upon as offering at least partial relief, 
although it was poor stuff as manufactured in the 
earlier years following its introduction. Yet they 
ate it with their corn or wheat bread, used it in 
making cake, or spreading pancakes. Some used 
it for wagon-greaso; and untidy housekeepers, who 
would be untidy under any circumstances, made won- 
derful smear with sorghum syrup. At certain of 
their homes I found it about impossible t-o sit down 
on a chair or stool, or even brush against a door 
casement, without being daubed with sorghum. And 
at the table, when the good-natured, oily housewife 
passed a handleless quart cup, from which the ends 
of her fingers drew dainty ropes of the syrup, and 
other hands in like manner passed it to me, I could 
truthfully as well as politely say, ^^I was not very 
fond of sweets.^^ But I met my match when I ac- 
cepted as dessert a piece of pie or tart — ^^something 
which had only a lower crust, with wild crab apples 
quartered, but neither pared nor cored, laid in it. 



THE MIXISTET. 



53 



with sorghum poured over them and bai:ed. Eat it? 
Certainly. Get sick? Of course; that was the usual 
order — had become chronic, in fact; I worked and 
ate in daytime and ^^heaved Jonah^^ at night. In- 
deed, I became so habituated to this process that 
well-nigh a whole year passed after leaving this 
charge before I could lie down at night without 
nausea and retching. Some of my brethren of the 
Conference who thought I needed ^^breaking in^^ 
would, I fancy, have enjoyed the regimen I was 
undergoing. But I made no complaint, nor told 
them of this episode of filth, though it came near 
finishing me. 

One day, after a long, cold ride, I stopped at 
the farmhouse of an. intelligent brother who was a 
justice of the peace and in good financial circum- 
stances. Finding my way through tlie deep snow 
to the front door, my rap was answered by a drowsy 
^^Come in.^^ There sat the man of the house alone, 
with one foot on each side of a stove which sur- 
mounted a pile of ashes, and contained a struggling 
fire, by which he was endeavoring to keep warm. My 
salutation did not stir him from his seat; nor did 
I appropriate a chair, but stood close to the stove 
and said, "Brother, how does your soul prosper now- 
days?^' "WelV^ said he, "my faith in God and 
religion is as firm as ever, but I don^t have that 
religious enjojnnent I used to have.^^ ^^ell/^ I broke 
in, "I can tell you how to recover that.^^ "Can you ? 



64 MEMOIRS AND SERMONS. 



That just what I want to know/^ "Then, here it 
is; clean ont your stable so that when one comes 
with a sweating horse he can get the door open 
wide enough to get him in out of the storm. And 
then shovel the snow away from your door so that 
he can get to your house without wading to his knees. 
Then get this pile of ashes from under and inside 
this stove so that you can have a fire that will warm 
the stove and be some help to a man who comes 
in nearly frozen. Then put that nasty pigeon, that 
roosts on the clock, outdoors, and keep the dogs off 
that bed that I sleep in when I stay overnight; in 
a word, rouse yourself and get out of this slothfulness 
and dirt, and fix and clean things up about the 
farm, and I ^11 warrant you ^11 get back your re- 
ligious enjojrment.^^ 

When I thought of what I had with some feeling 
said, I was startled. But it was all true, though 
not the whole truth; and, as the rules of pastoral 
duty required me to exhort to cleanliness where 
needful, and the extreme provocation of this moment 
did the rest, I let him have it. Now, I thought, 
he'll be mad. But no; after an evident struggle, 
he replied, "Do you think so?^^ I answered, "I am 
sure of it.^^ "Well, I do n^t know but you are right,^^ 
and he began to rake the ashes out of the stove 
and replenish the fire. As it had not been my in- 
tention to stay longer than to warm up, I soon took 
my departure, leaving him to meditate upon this 
unique pastoral visit. 



THE MINISTEY. 



56 



When, in a week or two, I came to fill my preach- 
ing appointment there, I was surprised and grati- 
fied to see the extent to which my effort to perform 
a disagreeable duty had been effectual. The pets, 
pigeons and dogs, were out of the house, and the 
gentleman himself was decidedly rubbed up. Ten 
years later a gentleman in another part of the State 
accosted me thus : ^^Did you ever preach at such 
a place about ten years ago?^^ ^^Yes, sir.^^ "Did 

you know Mr. "I did, very well.^^ "Do 

you remember talking to him about laziness and 
dirt?'' "Yes, sir.'' "Well, sir, he is my uncle.'' 
Now, thought I, I am to get the "lickin' " which his 
uncle did not give me. He continued, "And I 
want to tell you that you never did a better thing 
in your life; it was the salvation of that family, 
especially of those two children, their son and 
daughter. It turned a new leaf for the whole family, 
and they have prospered in finances, in their habits 
and manners, in self-respect, education, and religion." 
Twenty years later the son and daughter, having 
been educated at the State university, and about to 
start on a tour of Europe, stopped for a few days 
in the city where I resided and called at my house. 
Not finding me at home, they gave my wife a message 
from their father, whom I had not seen since leav- 
ing that circuit, saying, "Be sure to go to see Brother 
Miller and give him my everlasting love." 

Now, to resume about Talleyrand Circuit, it is 
fair to say that although the salary was fixed at 



56 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



$150 for a yearns service (I to pay my board out 
of that), they cheerfully paid the quarterly install- 
ments when due. We had good, spiritual meetings, 
gracious revivals, and, as all seemed to think, a 
prosperous time. After six months of this circuit, 
the presiding elder moved me to Muscatine to supply 
the pulpit of Pastor Worthington, the failure of whose 
health compelled him to desist from public speaking. 
This move, it is only truth to say, grieved my Talley- 
rand parish, and such had become my attachment 
to these kind and appreciative people I did not leave 
them without a pang of regret, although the move 
meant relief and promotion to me. One of the 
regrets of my life is that I have never since found 
it practicable to so much as pay them a visit. 

Muscatine. — Muscatine was then a city of about 
10,000 people. In former years our Church there 
had passed through many severe trials, but under 
the ministerial labors of the Eev. John Harris, had 
attained secure footing and was gaining ground. 
The Eev. David Worthington, now the pastor, re- 
tained charge, while I was expected to supply the 
pulpit service and share the work of pastoral visi- 
tation. But as my term in the Muscatine pulpit 
was presumably for but six months, I did not be- 
come so intimately or so warmly attached to the 
people generally as in other pastorates, although they 
paid me due respect, and my pupit service encourag- 
ing appreciation. 



THE MINISTRY. 



57 



In later years our Church became the largest 
Protestant Church in Muscatine^ and during the 
pastorate of Eev. W. F. Cowles, and under his fine 
generalship, built a large and elegant church edifice. 
The city is situated at the point where the Missis- 
sippi River reaches its most westerly curve in Iowa, 
and bending here, sweeps off to the southeast, bold, 
broad, and majestic. Standing upon the bluffs in 
West Muscatine, one can view, besides this grand 
sweep of the river, the whole of Muscatine Island 
in all the beauty of its fruitlands. Here once the 
rank prairie grass prepared by its< wondrous growth 
the fuel for the magnificent prairie fires which with 
all their wild fury, sweeping over many square miles, 
won in the Red Man^s terse vocabulary the name, 
^^Muscatine^^ (Fiery Island). One who has seen this 
vast plain, or a considerable portion of it, on fire 
could not wonder that Blackhawk, as the story goes, 
when a prisoner, was taken to view a display of 
fireworks in New York, and when asked if he did 
not think it was great, wonderful, etc., replied, ^^No 
great like Muscatine.^^ In addition to the river and 
the island, the view takes in the lovely coronet of 
bluffs which stretches from where it leaves the great 
"slougy^ or bayou, at the city, in a semi-circle of 
twenty miles to where it again dips in the great 
river. The farmhouses, seated on the bluffsides, by 
gushing springs of water, quietly and cosily enjoying 
their shelter from the Northwest winds, and looking 



68 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



down upon the smooth bottom lands which in wide 
acres sweep gradually down to the bayou, complete 
a scene of rare loveliness and inspiring beauty. 

The 'ensuing session of the Iowa Annual Con- 
ference was held in Washington, Iowa, Bishop Janes 
presiding. After examination and recommendation 
by the Standing Committee, each member of our 
class was elected to the order of deacon by vote of 
the Conference, and Bishop Janes administered the 
ordination ceremony on the following Sabbath. The 
class, originally of eight members, consisted at this 
time of James H. Hopkins, Dennis Murphy, Manas- 
sah B. Wayman, and myself. 

One of my greatest mistakes was committed at 
this Conference session by my assenting to transfer, 
at the request of Bishop Janes, to the Missouri Con- 
ference, to take charge of Simpson Chapel, St. Louis. 
Although the transfer was not made without my 
consent, the pressure was such that I yielded. If I 
had possessed better judgment or a better knowledge 
of the conditions at Simpson Chapel, and perhaps 
had been less susceptible to the thought of promo- 
tion, I would have declined the transfer. As the 
sessions of the Missouri Conference were held in 
the spring of the year I was liable, though not likely, 
to be moved again at the end of six months. How- 
ever, I accepted the arrangement and was appointed 
to take charge of the chapel. 

St. Louis. — The state of feeling in the charge 



THE MimSTET. 



59 



I found anything but encouraging. The members 
were grieved and provoked because of the removal 
of the former pastor^ Eev. J. C. Smith, who had 
been promoted to a presiding eldership which had 
thus in the middle of the Conference year been 
made vacant by the death of his predecessor. Two 
or three of the wealthy members had in their chagrin 
withdrawn from the Church. But I endeavored to 
proceed as though there was nothing wrong, and see- 
ing I was not to blame, they tentatively rallied 
about me. Even those whose disaffection had led 
them to withdraw from the Church continued to 
attend our services and pay their usual contributions 
to its support. In the meantime, Miss Polly Headley 
Millar, referred to above as residing near Muscatine, 
I brought to St. Louis as my wife, where we boarded 
during the remainder of my stay as pastor of Simp- 
son Chapel. 

As the springtime drew on, I presumed that I 
would be reappointed to Simpson Chapel at the 
coming Conference session, to continue in that 
charge for the ensuing Conference year, but it was 
decreed by some of the Conference ^^bosses'^ that 
I must move. The aged bishop, though protesting 
against this injustice of moving me at the end of 
but six months, yielded to the insistence of the 
presiding elder of Jefferson City District, and the 
assent of my presiding elder of the St. Louis Dis- 
trict, who, I was told, was completely under the 



60 MEMOIES AND SEEMOJTS. 



thumb of the former. ^^Machinations'^ is a harsh 
word to apply to the doings of Christian ministers, 
but this was a transaction of which one of the older 
ministers of the Conference, who knew the motives 
and methods of this whole affair, declared, ^^A more 
infamous thing had never been done in a Confer- 
ence/^ It is not intended to detail this matter here, 
but simply to say it resulted in disgrace to that 
Church, brought about by the minister who was ap- 
pointed there in my stead, and for whose sake (he 
was a rich man) the presiding elder of his (Jeffer- 
son City) District secured him the change, for a 
money consideration. 

Franklin Circuit. — Franklin Circuit, Jefferson 
City District, was the name of the charge to which 
I was appointed. It took its name from the small 
railway station. Franklin, which is about twenty 
miles west of St. Louis, but had neither Methodist 
Church organization nor building. The circuit em- 
braced four preaching places. One of these, Clay- 
ton, was perhaps three miles west of St. Louis, 
though now near, if not within, the city limits. For 
several months, amid the mutterings of Civil War, 
I endeavored to discharge the pastoral duties of this 
circuit, though beset with menaces and threats of 
various forms of violence, from stoning and tar and 
feathers to death itself. During this time my wife 
and I were guests in the Clayton family. Mr. and 
Mrs. Clayton, although owning a slave or two — hav- 



THE MINISTEY. 



61 



ing provided for their freedom — ^were loyal to the 
National Union and to the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. Their home afforded to ns the welcome 
and deferential treatment of guests^ though it was 
in fact an asylum in our lack of an adequate income 
and the circuits lack of a parsonage. The other 
preaching places were strung out westward for the 
distance of about thirty miles, as my memory serves 
me. 

Fenton, a village or small town about eight miles 
southwest of St. Louis, was one of my appointments, 
or preaching places. At one of my services here a 
mob, led by a Mr. Smiser, justice of the peace, ap- 
peared in the church when I was in the midst of 
a sermon, but took seats and quietly awaited the con- 
clusion of the service. Then the leader of the mob 
arose and, addressing me, said they had come to 
inform me that, as I was a Northern man and a min- 
ister of a Northern Church, my presence among 
them was a source of irritation to their people, al- 
though they knew no particular facts to allege against 
me personally. I assured him that I was not there 
to meddle with their affairs, but to devote myself 
strictly to the spiritual interests of the charge to 
which I had been assigned. This, however, did 
not satisfy him, but really gave him a chance to 
open out in a general tirade against Northern 
Churches and preachers generally, and the ^^North- 
ern Methodist^^ Church, as he termed it, in particular. 



62 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



sayings ^^Yon Northern Methodist preachers [naming 
Eev. Henry Ward Beecher as one] brought on this 
war/^ etc. By this time a bumptious brother of my 
company of worshipers^ Brother SuUens^ arose and 
entered hotly into dispute with the spokesman of the 
mob. Blood was up between these two especially^ and 
as we moved from the churchy and I stepped from the 
door^ a ruffian struck me with his fist^ staggering me 
somewhat to one side^ but not quite felling me to the 
ground. This fired afresh my hot-blooded friend^ 
and he made for the leader and would have trounced 
him severely — for he was a powerful man — but for 
the interference of others^ men and women^ who 
sought to prevent if poissible an actual fight. While 
the people were thus engaged in a disputatious ef- 
fort to prevent a battle^ which now seemed less 
probable than at firsts I mounted my horse and 
started for my afternoon appointment. Word came 
afterward that the peace sentiment prevailed at 
Fenton for the present^ and no one had been hurt. 

On the morning of the same day I had received 
word that if the presiding elder and I would come 
to the quarterly meetings as announced for Sunday 
two weeks hence^ at Piney^ some six or seven miles 
westward from Fenton (as I remember), we might 
'^expect a coat of tar and feathers.'^ The presiding 
elder, however, had, as I learned later, disbanded the 
district a month before by writing to each pastor, 
myself excepted, releasing them from their pastoral 



THE MINISTEY. 



63 



charges and advising them to seek safety as best 
they conld^ and he had betaken himself and family 
to a place of safety in St. Louis. 

Ignorant of all this, I continued in my work 
and rode to the farthest appointment west for the 
next Sabbath seryice. As the rough road among 
the flint hills proved too much for my horse^s feet, 
I was obliged to proceed but slowly, ajid was over- 
taken by darkness before reaching my destination. 
Feeling my way by moving slowly over the rough 
road, I reached a small clearing in the woodland 
and saw a dim light apparently about one hundred 
yards from the road. Stopping, I heard a man^s 
voice indulging in loud profanity. At the first in- 
termission of his eloquence I called a ^^hello^^ which 
was promptly answered. I asked if I could stay 
over night with him, to which he replied, ^^I never 
turn anybody away; light off!^^ He soon came to 
the bars with his lantern, and directly my horse 
was stabled and I led into a snug log cabin. 
There I found myself with two men, ruffians, a 
little the worse for whisky, and extremely profane; 
but not a woman or child about the house. The 
man who met me was the older of the two and the 
owner of the place. He showed me through his 
cabin and pointed out its excellencies with as much 
satisfaction as a millionaire might exhibit his man- 
sion, telling me he had cleared the land and built 
the cabin himself in the three years he had lived 



/ 

64 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 

there. ^^But/^ said I, "you have not kept bach, 
here all that time?^^ Then with a shockingly pro- 
fane imprecation upon her^ he said^ "0, I had a 

thing here, but she did n't suit me, so I let 

her go.'' The rest of the evening was spent in 
telling me with vast profanity of his two trips across 
the plains and of men whom he had shot, and added 
an account of a quarrel he had had recently at the 
grocery in a near by neighborhood in which he had 
killed his man. I had told him I was a Methodist 
minister on my way to a preaching place a little 
further on, but my horse had given out. Of course 
I perceived I was in the company of two desperadoes. 
When time came to retire he assigned me a berth 
which was fastened against the wall on one side 
of the room, and he and his man took the other 
and wider one on the other side. So, supperless, 
and commending myself to God for the night, I laid 
down and slept soundly until after daybreak. "Git 
up; don't you hear the birds hoUerin'?" was my 
host's salutation to his fellow ruffian. Soon he 
was out feeding stock, the other prepared breakfast, 
and in the meantime I rose and dressed. When 
all was ready, my host politely asked me to "set by," 
but before attempting to eat, crossed his knees, 
closed his eyes, and bowing his head, said, "Ax us 
a blessin', will you?" The breakfast consisted of 
mixed cornmeal and water, without salt, baked in a 
frying pan or "skillet," besides some dried venison. 



THE MINISTEY. 



65 



extremely salt, fried, and some wretched coffee. 
Breakfast over, he brought mj horse, and as we 
walked to the bars opening to the main road, he 
apologized for his profanity of the previous evening, 
confessing he had been drinking. When I offered 
to pay him for my entertainment, he said, ^^All I 
charge is that you stop with me again when you 
pass this way.^^ Saying he would "come and listen 
at^^ me when I came "to preach over to Piney,^^ he 
bade me a cordial good-bye. 

When I reached the church, three miles further 
on, the people were gathering for service, and won- 
deringly asked me where I had spent the night. 
When I described the place and the man, they were 
horror-stricken, saying, "Why, that is Bill Ander- 
son, the desperado who led the mob that tarred 
and feathered Brother Sellers, our pastor, last year.^^ 
They wondered he had not murdered and made 
away with me. But a-s I had slept soundly through 
the night, without weapons or apprehension, I was 
much refreshed, and prayed and preached as usual. 
This same Bill Anderson became noted later as a 
leader of rebel "bushwhackers^^ and "bridge burn- 
ers^^ in Missouri, and was eventually captured and 
shot or hung, I forget which, by Union soldiers. 
Upon my return to Clayton^s, I passed through 
Fenton, the place of the above noted Sunday^s mob- 
bing, but met with no disturbance other than a stone 
hurled at me which, had it been better aimed, would 

5 



66 



MEMOIES AXD SEEMONS. 



probably have unhorsed me. As it was, a trail of 
mud across my hat was the only scar I could show 
for that adventure. On the following Saturday, 
accompanied by my venerable steward, Brother Ealph 
Clayton, I started for the quarterly meeting, which 
had been announced, but not recalled, by the pre- 
siding elder, to be held at ^Tiney^^ (or Pine Eidge, 
perhaps), the place from which I had received the 
promise of a coat of tar and feathers in case I 
appeared there for the quarterly meeting. How- 
ever, we made the venture, and parsing through Fen- 
ton, we were joined by our belligerent brother, 
Brother Sullens, who had defied the mob two weeks 
before, a steward and a ^local preacher.^^ "We three 
went on, some five or six miles I judge, to the place 
of meeting. There was a small gathering of people 
to the Saturday afternoon meeting, but as the pre- 
siding elder did not appear, I, of course, conducted 
the service, which included a sermon. It was to 
have been followed by the Quarterly Conference, 
but as the ^^elder'^ was not present, nor any of the 
officiary of the circuit but the two stewards who 
had accompanied me, there was no business we could 
transact, except the turning over to me of a little 
money as "^^quarterage.^^ In view of the financial 
weakness of the circuit, a small appropriation of 
missionary money had been allotted it — as I recol- 
lect, $65 for the year — one-fourth of which I had 
received at Conference, as it was the presiding 



THE MimSTEY. 



67 



elder^s duty to pay me at the first of each quarter 
(in the form of a check already made out and signed 
by the bishop presiding at the Annual Conference). 
Having announced preaching for Sunday morning, 
hoping the presiding elder would be present, the 
stewards and I went, upon invitation, to stay for the 
night at the residence of a Mr. Sullens (brother 
of our steward of that name). Eepairing to the 
church Sunday morning, we found a good-sized con- 
gregation, but no presiding elder. From all ap- 
pearance, I judged there were present at least three 
parties, the sincere worshipers, the mob, and those 
who came to see what might happen. Ignoring all 
this, I proceeded with the service, including the 
sermon and communion, enjoying an average degree 
of fervency and freedom. At the close of the morn- 
ing service, I announced the close of the quarterly 
meeting, ^Wing to the absence of the presiding 
elder.'^ 

Not a hand or word was raised against me; 
and after dinner we sought our homes, where we 
arrived without annoyance of any kind. "Why the 
mob made no hostile move I never learned. Whether 
their threat was but an empty bluJff, or whether they 
feared a to-o serious interposition in the interest of 
peace and order, or whether the fact of a man in 
the line of his duty, and unarmed, disarmed their 
hostile intent I could only guess, but have always 
inclined to the last view. We were greatly surprised 



68 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



to find, before we left the home of Mr. SuUens, 
where we had been so hospitably entertained, that 
he was himself a sympathizer with the rebellion, 
which fact he declared in a sudden intemperate 
explosion of rebel sentiment. Thus, as in many 
other instances, we soon found the ground was break- 
ing up all about us and that Missouri was saturated 
with the rebel spirit. But before we had reached 
half way home the news met us that General Lyon 
had captured ^^Camp Jackson,'^ a military organiza- 
tion of ostensibly Home Guards, but really in sym- 
pathy with the Confederate cause, encamped near 
the western boundary of St. Louis and under com- 
mand of General Frost. This news revived our 
spirits with the hope that this was the beginning 
of the suppression of the rebellion in Missouri. 

But now something decisive must be done as 
to my pastoral relation to Franklin Circuit. Our 
Church people with few exceptions had become in- 
timidated and feared to attend our services. The 
presiding elder, I now learned, had disbanded the 
district by writing a release to each pastor, except 
myself. My wife and I had boarded at Brother 
Clayton^s longer than we had contemplated; the 
country was thoroughly unsettled, money exceed- 
ingly scarce, business prostrated, and the Church 
work in the country circuits disorganized, and, 
for the present at least, at an end. About this time 
financial help came from my kinfolk in Iowa, and 



THE MimSTEY. 



69 



I put my wife on a steamer for Muscatine, where in 
a few hours she landed safely and was met by her 
father, resident near that city. 

Meantime, I hunted up my presiding elder in 
St. Louis and asked him for the second installment 
of the missionary appropriation due me. He de- 
clined to hand over the check or the money, but put 
me off with the remark that he would ''waif to see 
whether I might not be able to get something else 
to do for a living. This word wait was the vicious 
word in this excuse. It is true that I had some 
slight acquaintance in St. Louis, but at this time 
such was the paralysis in businesiS that I oould not 
bear to put myself upon even my best known friends 
in that city, knowing they could not welcome guests 
when there was but small chance to keep themselves 
and children from becoming hunger bitten. I could 
not honorably impose upon them for what they 
showed no disposition to offer. After paying such 
of my bills as needed attention, and explaining in 
cases which had time to run, and furnishing my 
wife money for her trip to Muscatine, about the 
hardest thing for me to do was to ^Vait.^^ The fact 
that my money, small sum as it was, was due at 
quarterly meeting time, that the presiding elder 
ought to have been there or sent some one in his 
stead, or at farthest, have mailed me the check or 
money, was a good reason why he should have seized 
the first sight of me to pay over the apportionment. 



70 MEMOIES A^B SEEMONS. 



The money was not his, he had no right to use it 
or hold it after the quarterly meeting; hence the 
vicious character of this word, '^Vait/^ Yet for 
two weeks I waited in St. Louis, ^"^stretching^^ the 
little money I had, and stretching the scanty pro- 
visions I could buy with it as far as possible, I 
managed to subsist on no ^^square meals,^^ but "a 
little something to eat^^ about once in two days. 
Meanwhile I slept nights in an upper room of the 
Boatmen^s Chapel, where household goods, includ- 
ing bedding, had been stored and left in my charge 
by Eev. (afterward General) "W. A. Pyle (late pas- 
tor of that chapel, but at this time chaplain in the 
Union army). The goods were left in my care, to 
ship to his family in Illinois when ordered. This 
chapel was on the street fronting the river and ad- 
joining a long row of compactly built warehouses. 

The memory of this upper room will continue 
with me doubtless as long as that faculty remains, 
especially on account of two marked experiences 
there. The first was a clear-headedness unusual to 
me, owing, no doubt, to the unusual fast I wa^ 
^^enjoying?^^ Of course I prayed, too; and I had 
experienced times of fasting and prayer many times 
before, but had not kept them with such uncon- 
ventional continuity. But now I learned that to 
obtain the greatest clearness of spiritual insight and 
concentration of analytical and synthetic thought of 
which one is capable, the fasting may be greatly 



THE MINISTEY. 



71 



increased in both completeness and continuance. A 
number of problems which I had kept mentally 
on the shelf for some years found easy^ clear, and 
abiding solution at this time. Besides solving these 
questions, I beguiled many lonely hours here by 
reading Butler^s Analogy. Of course I had gone 
through it at school as a delightsome study, but now 
it was better than Shakespeare to help me forget 
my woes and commune with one of the immortals. 
One evening after I had .systematized my sorrows 
and laid them aside, and become deeply absorbed 
in the Analogy, as I sat on the side of my bed — 
unrolled upon the floor — the other marked experi- 
ence suddenly intervened. It was to me the most 
frightful affright I had ever experienced. Out from 
the garret of the abutting warehouse, and bursting 
through the intervening window into my room, two 
most hideous warehouse cats, yelling like demons, 
leaped to the edge of my bed, and there reared and 
fought and screamed and tore each other^s hair until 
— ^until I outyelled them, as I thought, and threw 
something, I fear it was Butler, at them. Xot 
abating their screaming, they sprang back through 
the window and far along through the sooty garrets 
their fiendish wails and yells died away. If Dante 
had seen and heard them, I suspect the horrors of 
the Inferno would have been enriched. 

At length my presiding elder yielded to the ex- 
tent of the second quarter of my claim, and with 



72 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



this I took boat to Muscatine. At the next session 
of the Missouri Conference it was ordered that each 
preacher who had gone to his appointed work and 
had been compelled to leave it by reason of the war, 
should be paid his full appropriation of missionary 
money for the entire year. The appropriation to my 
charge for the year was sixty-five dollars. Of this I 
had received but one-half; the remainder was, per- 
haps, appropriated by the presiding elder — to what 
use I have never learned, but I remember how in- 
dignant was Bishop Ames when he learned of the 
presiding elder^s conduct in the matter. 

While ^Vaiting^^ at St. Louis I was not idle in 
the effort to find something to do to earn at least 
a temporary living. The only success I met in this 
respect was to secure the promise of the chaplaincy 
of a Missouri regiment, then filling at the arsenal. 
Meantime, when calling one day on our most prom- 
inent pastor in the city, I found him ill. Besides, 
I learned that the demoralization of his Church 
was such that his financial support had about slid 
from under him, and want for daily food for his 
family was staring him in the face. Furthermore, 
he had lately received word that the regiment, the 
chaplaincy of which he was expecting to assume 
in a few days, would not be mustered in until some 
indefinitely future time. Along with this came the 
news that my regiment was to le mustered immedi- 
ately. These orders cut off the early relief which 



THE MINISTEY. 



73 



he expected from a chaplain^s salary, and brought 
relief nearer to me. Whereupon I agreed to turn 
the chaplaincy of my regiment over to him that he 
might get early relief, and I, with the small sum 
which I had ^Vaited^^ out of the presiding elder, 
took boat for Muscatine, where my wife was, safe 
with her parents, and I was sioon cordially greeted. 

Ebenezer Church, Burlingtox. — Failing thus 
to secure the chaplaincy I had expected, I obtained 
a re-transfer to the Iowa Conference at its session 
in September, and was appointed pastor of '^^Eb- 
enezer^^ — later, ^^Division Street^ ^ — Church, Burling- 
ton. The next year the two Churches in Burlington, 
Ebenezer and Old Zion, were consolidated, and I 
was appointed to Keosauqua. Difficulties in the 
way of my moving to that charge led me to write to 
the presiding elder of that (Keokuk) district, ask- 
ing him to release me, and I accepted for one year 
the position of principal of Eliot Seminary, Bur- 
lington. 



CHAPTEE III. 



Upper Iowa Conference. 

At the next session of the Iowa Annual Conference, 
September, 1863, Bishop Ames proposed to trans- 
fer me to the Upper Iowa Conference, which offer 
for various and good reasons I accepted. That Con- 
ference convened two weeks later, in Davenport, 
whither I went, and was regnlarly transferred and 
was appointed pastor of our Church in Cedar Eapids, 
where, after about two weeks, we were settled. 

Cedar Eapids. — Although Cedar Eapids was a 
brisk little city of about 2,000 inhabitants, and 
has become one of the finest and most prosperous 
inland cities of Iowa, the Methodist Church was 
at that time at a very low and weak state. During 
the twelve preceding years it had sustained a series 
of very disgraceful and disheartening misfortunes; 
insomuch that many of our prominent families had, 
for mainly social considerations. Joined other 
Churches. A few of good social standing continued 
firm in their attachment to their Church. Most 
of these, however, were in but moderate financial 
circumstances and without prominence or special In- 

74 



UPPEE IOWA CONPEEENCE. 75 



fluence. The church building was an uninviting brick 
shell of but one room^ the walls of which were badly 
cracked and the plaster of the ceiling broken loose 
in many places. It was situated on a street along 
the middle of which was the track of the ISTorthwest- 
em Eailway^ the trains of which, by their jarring, 
were gradually wrecking the building; as also by 
their noise caused great disturbance to religious serv- 
ice. There was no parsonage, and the pastor must 
pay his house rent out of a salary of five hundred 
dollars. In addition to these peculiarities we had a 
small brick church situated on the west side of the 
river, in a suburb of Cedar Eapids, named Kingston, 
later included within the city corporation. Instead 
of being an advantage, this little Church seemed to 
divide the interest of our membership, part of whom 
resided on the west side, kept up a Sunday school, 
and desired at least one preaching service each Sun- 
day. The most practicable adjustment of this matter 
was to preach three sermons each Sabbath — morning 
and evening in Cedar Eapids, and in Kingston in 
the afternoon. As the three congregations were 
largely made up of the same persons, three new ser- 
mons were required each Sabbath. A further ac- 
quaintance revealed the fact that the Church had 
been on the verge of dissolution. Certain members 
informed me they had agreed before the last Con- 
ference that "if the conditions of last year were 
continued by the Conference, they would disband.^^ 



76 MEMOIRS AND SEEMONS. 



'No pastor appointed to that charge within the twelve 
years preceding had continued more than one year, 
and several had failed to stay a full year. Some were 
disheartened by the untoward conditions, others dis- 
graced themselves and brought reproach upon the 
Church by various forms of indiscretion, indecency, 
or crime. It was well I did not learn of all this at 
the beginning of the Conference year, lest I might 
have yielded to discouragement. But, it seemed by 
the help of God, we persevered ; living scantily, study- 
ing and working hard, gradually gathering a good 
attendance at our services, attaining better organiza- 
tion of the Sunday schools, a better feeling of unity 
among the membership of east and west sides of the 
river, and a more respectful recognition in matters 
and movements of general interest in the city. Al- 
though we had no marked revival, there were a few 
conversions and a number of accessions to the Church 
by letter and probation. 

One of the marked conditions incident to this 
charge was that pastors and members of other and 
stronger Churches seemed to see no wrong in going 
to respectable members of our Church, seeking to 
lure them from us, on the ground that they were 
^^too respectable^^ to belong to the Methodists. They 
practiced this persistently with newcomers also who 
were Methodists. Of course I have known similar 
practices in other places, but never so persistently 
and successfully practiced as in Cedar Rapids, 



UPPEE IOWA CONFEEENCE. 77 



Members of our Church from other places, moving 
here and seeing our rickety church building and our 
unimposing conditions generally, frequently turned 
a.way rather than take hold to help us in our dire 
need. About one year and a half before my going 
to Cedar Eapids the Methodist pastor there and a 
considerable number of our prominent members joined 
the Protestant Episcopal Church. 

However, we endured and wrought through our 
first year, and were returned for the second. And, 
strange as it seems to me now, I was satisfied to 
continue with them, notwithstanding the scantiness 
and disadvantages of many kinds to which we were 
subjected. We stayed the second year, but I have 
often questioned whether I did right to subject my 
wife to the hard and embarrassing conditions which 
we endured here for the sake of holding together 
and giving an upward turn to the fortunes of this 
charge. Upon the whole, we have had more of 
disagreeable and less of pleasurable remembrance 
upon looking back over our experience at Cedar 
Eapids than of any charge in our entire itinerant 
life; this, too, notwithstanding certain happy and 
enduring friendships which we there formed. My 
successor, Eev. Stephen H. Henderson, built up the 
Church in a more marked degree, and in the course 
of subsequent years it, as well as the city, has greatly 
prospered. 

Leclaire. — Leclaire Circuit was our next appoint- 



78 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



ment. It had four preaching places; Leclaire and 
Princeton were towns on the Mississippi Eiver four 
miles apart. The two country places, Pleasant Valley 
and Creswell, three miles apart, and each about five 
miles westward from Leclair. We continued here for 
two years, at a salary of $800 per annum, and had 
a revival of spiritual life in the Church and a goodly 
number of converts at three of these places. The 
town of Leclaire is situated at the head of the ^^Upper 
Eapids^^ of this river, sixteen miles above Davenport. 
It is a place of much natural beauty, and is remark- 
able for its healthfulness. "We had comfortable 
churches in which to worship at all four points, but 
the parsonage was very poor. Our people were com- 
fortable livers, of average intelligence, and mainly 
interesting and appreciative. 

Davenport. — Davenport became our next place 
of work, and my charge was ^^Pourteenth Street 
Church.^^ The church edifice was the transept of 
what was intended to be when completed a large 
cruciform building. This transept had been but 
newly erected and was about ready for occupancy 
when I took charge, and I proceeded to arrange for 
its dedication. Having secured Dr. T. M. Eddy to 
conduct the dedicatory services, he preached morning 
and evening, and his father, Eev. Augustus Eddy, 
who had come with him, gave us a good, old-fashioned 
sermon at three o^ clock in the afternoon. The heavy 
work of raising the debt was largely accomplished 



UPPEE IOWA CONFEEENCE. 79 



at the morning service, leaving a remnant which 
was pledged in the evening. 

It is needless to say that Dr. Eddy^s sermons 
were exceedingly eloquent, holding the crowded audi- 
ence in rapt attention. His solicitation of subscrip- 
tions was as pleasant and entertaining as that class 
of ^^devotions^^ can well be made. 

Paying these subscriptions and the current ex- 
penses greatly taxed the members and friends of this 
Church through the year. Although the esprit du 
corps of the Church was excellent and continuous, 
and individual members taxed themselves heavily and 
systematically, there was a deficit in the finances 
at the end of the year. The spiritual interest had 
been well maintained, and the classes and Sunday 
school well organized and oflBcered, but little real 
headway was made in adding to the strength of the 
membership. When a Church, like a man, is strug- 
gling for life, it is not in good condition to save 
others. Such was precisely the situation here, and 
changed but little throughout the history of that 
Church. Its members were, as a rule, pious, faithful, 
and heroically self-sacrificing, but though their de- 
votion was admired, it did not win marked increase 
of numbers nor financial strength to their cause. 
Their struggle for life left but little aggressive 
force. 

This year did not seem to me as, upon the whole, 
a successful year. It is true we had a good revival 



80 MEMOIES AN"D SEEMONS. 



service^ led by Evangelist Adams. Sinners in con- 
siderable numbers were converted, and good Chris- 
tians found strengthening help to their spiritual life. 
These things no human judgment can weigh, and 
none dare belittle them, but the strength and growth 
of that Church as a factor in the city signally came 
short in comparison with the large expectations of 
those who launched the enterprise. Those who were 
most sanguine held me, I think, responsible for the 
measure of failure as they estimated it. While I 
think they were in some degree correct in this, the 
deeper fact was that certain conditions existed there 
against which no preacher whom they could get had 
much chance to win. That they were really making 
headway toward a commanding position in the com- 
munity required a more reckless optimism than mine 
to believe. 

Davenport District. — At the ensuing session of 
the Upper Iowa Conference, September, 1868, I was 
appointed presiding elder of the Davenport District 
This was in the thirty- fourth year of my age and at 
the end of my tenth year in the regular ministry. 
Bishop Simpson^s attention would scarcely have 
turned toward me in seeking a man to succeed two 
such able presiding elders as Drs. A. J. Kynett and 
R. W. Keeler, but for a petition requesting my ap- 
pointment which a number of pastors on that district 
signed and presented to him. This request was as 
much a surprise to me as doubtless it must have 



UPPEE IOWA CONFEEENCE. 81 



been to many others. This district was formed and 
conducted on the old plan which embraced from 
but fourteen to eighteen pastoral charges. Quarterly 
meetings were held at each charge every three months, 
and the presiding elder was expected to preach once 
or twice and hold Quarterly Conference on Saturday, 
and to preach twice, besides conducting love-feast 
and administer sacraments on Sunday; except that 
in some of the city Churches one or both of the 
Saturday sermons could be omitted. 

To bring all these quarterly meetings within the 
required time the presiding elder must occasionally 
send a substitute or helper to hold some of them. 
These substitutes were usually pastors who could 
arrange to accommodate him, and sometimes a lay, 
or local, preacher or a superannuate was sent. How- 
ever well they could fill the presiding elder's place, 
the people were usually dissatisfied with substitutes. 
The two presiding elders who had preceded me for 
eight years successively on this district were tall, 
fine-looking men, considerably above six feet in 
height, well proportioned, of imposing presence, and 
very able preachers. Hence, my first round of 
quarterly meetings had the incidental interest of 
making it clear to the people that I was not a ^^sub- 
stitute,'' but a ^^sure enough" presiding elder, ^^reg- 
ularly appointed by the bishop at Conference." Such 
was the misfortune of my being a short and unim- 
posing figure. Though this circumstance gave rise 

6 



82 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



to many ludicrous situations and, sometimes, em- 
barrassing remarks, it could easily be laughed off or 
give rise to some pungent sally in defense of men of 
small stature. 

At the end of the third year I was obliged, by 
the severe sickness of Mrs. Miller, to ask to be re- 
lieved of this oflBce. While the ofl&ce afforded op- 
portunities to do much good, and was very interest- 
ing in many ways, it involved many disagreeable 
experiences. My necessary absence from home much 
of the time imposed much domestic care and hard- 
ship upon Mrs. Miller, as well as disadvantages to 
' myself. The extreme difficulty of maintaining regu- 
lar study constantly beset me. Experience proved 
that nothing but a resolute determination, backed 
by careful planning, could prevent the breaking up 
of consecutive study. 

This official position naturally — that is, with- 
out suggestion or effort on my part — had brought 
me into notice as a possible delegate to the Gen- 
eral Conference, to be held at Brooklyn in May, 
1872. The pastors in my district with almost entire 
unanimity, I was told, favored my election. There 
were under the patronage of this Conference two 
institutions of collegiate grade, Cornell College and 
Upper Iowa University, and the rivalry between them 
for patronage and for Conference backing was often 
acutely strenuous. The friends of these institutions 
naturally drew into partisan groups; insomuch, in- 



TJPPEK IOWA CONFEEENCB. 83 



deed, as to form two well-defined factions in the 
Conference. All who, like myself, held aloof from 
these factions could expect little or no support from 
them. Their favor depended mainly upon the ex- 
tent to which they could draw upon us for partisan 
assistance. And, as these factions were made avail- 
able by aspirants to general offices, the episcopal 
office especially, they wished the delegates to be men 
who would support their aspirations. A close friend 
of one of these candidates asked me whether I would 
vote for his man for bishop if I were elected a dele- 
gate to the General Conference. My answer indi- 
cated that I had not decided that matter and was 
not ready tO' commit myself to his support. When 
asked why, I replied substantially that my feeling 
toward him personally was entirely friendly, that 
I believed he was the right man for the general 
office which he then held, but being naturally a 
partisan, he was not a good man for a bishop. Then 
he said my 'position would prevent my election as 
a delegate. My answer was, ''Be it so-; I will do 
nothing under a threat T Tip to this point the pros- 
pect for my election had been considered good, but 
things now changed and I was not elected. In con- 
versation later with another close friend of this candi- 
date for episcopal honors, I remarked that he and 
his helpers could not afford to take the position that 
they would crush every man who declined to sup- 
port his ambition; that in doing so they had put it 



84 MEMOIRS AND SEEMONS. 



into my hands to defeat Mm ; that, representing such 
purpose, he ought to be defeated, and I meant to 
do it. 

Accordingly, without attacking him, I explained 
the cause of my being left out of the delegation to 
two or three Western delegates whose support was 
necessary to his success, and who wanted to know 
why I was not elected. Their indignation, quietly 
but firmly expressed, convinced me the case was 
settled. And so it proved. I had no need to work 
against him. All I cared for was to see the ^^crush- 
ing policy^^ defeated in this and later elections. 

In my third year on Davenport District the 
health of Mrs. Miller completely gave way. Although 
we had good hired help in the house most of the 
time, the care which rested upon her during my 
absence from home so told upon her strength that, 
with other sickness, quite broke down her nervous 
system. Pastors in the district kindly substituted me 
at my quarterly meetings and thus carried forward 
the work until my wife^s health was so far recovered 
as to admit of my resuming regular work. In the 
meantime I had taken my wife and children, upon 
the advice of our physician, to her father's country 
home near Muscatine. Here, in quietude and freedom 
from responsibility, she soon began to amend, though 
recovery was a slow and trying process. 

It was during this respite in the country that 
we lost our little Mary, a babe of six months, by an 



UPPER IOWA CONFEEENCE. 85 



attack of pneumonia. Though this, we felt, was a 
sad and severe affliction, Mrs. Miller bore up under 
it with Christian resignation and with less damage 
to her enfeebled health than we feared. It was when 
we lived in Cedar Eapids that our three-months-old 
babe, Grace, in her sweetness and beauty had gone 
before, February 28, 1864. 

Davenport. — At the ensuing session of the Upper 
Iowa Conference I was, at my own request, relieved 
of the presiding eldership. The bishop (Ames) ap- 
pointed me pastor of our Church at Davenport with 
a view to concentrating our strength at Fourteenth 
Street Church and completing that building. Our 
Church affairs here were curiously mixed and diffi- 
cult as they were nondescript. By various influences 
our Church in Davenport had been divided into four 
distinct organizations — rivals instead of aids to each 
other. To reunite them, at least the two stronger 
societies in the central part of the city (First Church 
and Fourteenth Street Church), seemed to me a 
very desirable and important thing to do; and this 
was what Bishop Ames intended in appointing me 
in charge of the whole work in Davenport, giving 
me a junior pastor, Eev. J. S. Wilcox, as an assistant. 
The form in which this intention was written by the 
bishop and printed in the Minutes was, "Davenport, 
14th Street, Emory Miller, J. S. Wilcox.'^ Although 
First Church was the largest and in every way the 
strongest and most representative body of Meth- 



86 



MEMOIES AXD SEEMOIfS. 



odists in the city, and had the only Methodist par- 
sonage, it was not mentioned by name in the ap- 
pointment for the reason that I was expected to 
live in the parsonage, but ultimately unite the two 
societies in one at Fourteenth Street, and arrange the 
two small societies with their chapels at East and 
West Davenport in a mission. But this plan, though 
evidently the right thing to do, proved to be over 
thirty years in advance of the views of a large num- 
ber of the members. Over thirty years passed before 
they saw that the continuance of a self-supporting 
Methodist Church in Davenport depended on doing 
exactly what we had planned to do under better 
auspices. In fact, though the First Church people 
were mainly in favor of the plan, the Fourteenth 
Street people hotly opposed it and rejected every 
overture proposed by First Church. The long and 
strenuous rivalry between them had crystallized their 
partisan feeling. First Church was mainly well- 
disposed and went far with conciliatory propositions 
for the sake of union, but Fourteenth Street folk 
would have none of it. The encroachments of the 
rapidly increasing German population — of mostly 
irreligious character — the great strength of the 
Eoman Catholic Church, and the languishing con- 
dition of Protestant Christianity in the city gen- 
erally, rendered this segregation of our Churches a 
menace to our usefulness, if not to our very exist- 
ence; we were well-nigh prostrate. 



TJPPEE IOWA COIfFEEENCE. 87 



The all-important thing left to do^ as I thought^ 
was to get First Church out of their old buildings 
at Fifth and Brady Streets — where the adjacent 
switching grounds of the Chicago^ Eock Island & 
Pacific Eailway made it all but untenable as a place 
of religious worship and work — and build a new 
church on a more eligible location. This we pro- 
ceeded to do; meanwhile the presiding elder, Eev. 
J. S. Anderson, provided a pastor for Fourteenth 
Street Church, and the Mission Churches were 
manned by the young minister, Brother Wilcox. 

The First Church people, now recognizing more 
fully than before that the standing of Methodism 
in their city depended chiefly upon them, and more 
than ever that they must have their place of worship 
away from the din of the making-up of railroad 
trains, proceeded to raise a subscription to buy a lot 
and build a new church. This move resulted in 
building and dedicating First Church on the crown 
of Brady Street Hill (Eighth and Brady). The 
Fourteenth Street Methodists objected to this prox- 
imity to the location of their church, and apparently 
with reason. Bishop Andrews, who had come to 
dedicate our new building, asked, ^Would it not 
have been better to locate your church on some other 
street or place further from Fourteenth Street 
Church He was convinced and satisfied by my 
answer, namely, ^*^If the interests of Methodism in 
the center of the city may safely be entrusted to 



88 MEMOIES AND SEEMOKS. 



this society at Fourteenth^ yesi; but if not, then not/^ 
The outcome has been as some of us forewarned. 
After toiling through a pilgrimage of over thirty 
years they have been impelled by force of circum- 
stances to find rest, as we had pointed out in 1871, 
in the consolidation of the two Churches as one 
organization, housed in an ample and elegant edifice 
at Fourteenth and Brady Streets. 

Clintoi^, Cedar Falls. — At the end of my three 
years^ pastorate at First Church, September, 1874, 
I was appointed pastor of our Church at Clinton, 
but at the end of that year, September, 1875, was 
taken up and put in charge of Cedar Falls District. 
At the same Conference session I was elected, with 
but little opposition, a delegate to the General Con- 
ference, to convene May 1, 1876, at Baltimore. The 
election of eight bishops by the preceding General 
Conference (1872) was generally regarded as so 
much in excess of the need of the Church that it 
was well understood there would be no promotions 
to that office at this Conference at Baltimore. 

As Baltimore had much historic interest for Meth- 
odists, my gratification from having been peacefully 
chosen a delegate had this special satisfaction. In- 
cidentally, too, it gave me most delightful acquaint- 
ance and entertainment, as a guest, in the family 
and fellowship of the pastor of Strawbridge Church, 
the Eev. A. J. Hank. It was my first visit east of 
the Alleghenies, and my host had never been west 



UPPER IOWA CONPEEENCE. 89 



of them, though he had traveled extensively beyond 
the Atlantic. We found constant interest in our 
comparison of Western and Eastern peculiarities. 
Especially entertaining to me were his accounts of 
European and Oriental countries and peoples. His 
curiosity to know what a "Westerner^^ thought of 
Baltimore helped me to entertain him occasionally. 
For example, ^^What things in Baltimore strike you 
as unexpected or strange 

"Two things especially : the buildings do not seem 
so tall as I expected, and the extreme deliberation 
with which the people move along the streets, whether 
driving or af oot.^^ 

"Ah ! how are the buildings in Western cities 
"In Chicago there are miles of them from six to 
ten stories, and many here and there higher. The 
movements of men and teams seem hurrying to ac- 
complish some purpose. Omnibuses, wagons, and 
cabs urge their way through the streets, and carriages 
and lighter rigs are often driven at well-nigh three- 
minute speed.^^ The expression of surprise on the 
faces of my host and hostess rather suggested that 
I had perhaps betrayed, without mentioning it, an- 
other Western characteristic, boastfulness. A pleas- 
ant turn in these comparisons of Eastern and West- 
ern things occurred anon when the pastor's good wife 
said, "Now, if you will tell me what is your usual 
diet in the West, or what there is here which you 
would like as a change from your Western fare, we 



90 MEMOIR'S AT^D SEEMONS. 



will be glad to have it for j^ou?'' Thanking her, 
I added I had not thought of suggesting a bill-of- 
fare, but her kindness reminded me that I had never 
had all the fresh fish I wanted/^ ^^Good; now you 
shall!" was her prompt reply; and I think every 
day of that month some kind of fresh fish, from 
mountain trout to rock, cod, shad, and more than I 
can now think of, even to deviled crab, came to her 
table, prepared by her tj^pical colored cook. But 
for nobler than gustatory reasons, one of the most 
sunny memories I bear is that of my month's asso- 
ciation with this genial family. It would have been 
a great pleasure to me if I could have afforded them 
an extensive tour of ^^The Great "West.'' 

This General Conference was marked by inter- 
esting anniversaries, speech-making, and resolutions 
in compliment to Baltimore as the ^^cradle of Meth- 
odism'^ in America, mixed with a great deal regard- 
ing Methodism that seemed very much like square- 
toed bragging. Some seemed to think they might 
indulge in measureless adulation of Methodism, its 
history, methods, and men, conscious of neither vain- 
glory nor bad taste, provided they interjected as an 
occasional side remark, ^What hath God wrought!'' 
or ''To God be the glory !" 

Another of the recreations of this Conference was 
a trip on a coast steamer down the Chesapeake to 
Annapolis, given by the people and pastor (Peck) 
of Mount Vernon Place Church. Western men who 



UPPEE IOWA CONFEEENCE. 91 



were as verdant as myself were impressed with this 
antique town, its finished appearance and historical 
associations, as also by the parade drill of the cadets 
on the grounds of the Naval Academy. The bay, the 
forts, the music and dinner on the steamer, and the 
social time made it a most pleasurable affair. 

At this Conference there were interesting debates 
and some maneuvering for office, but compared with 
other General Conferences which I have attended 
since, it yet seems to me as having been a rather 
amiable Conference; perhaps owing to the fact that 
no bishops were to be elected. Novice as I wa^, I 
found it less difficult to get the floor than in the four 
later General Conferences of my experience. In all 
but this first one my way has been singularly hedged 
up when attempting to speak. In like manner my 
pulpit assignments while at General Conferences have 
never been in prominent Churches, but usually in 
comparatively obscure places. Whether this was be- 
cause I was from the West, or because of a fixed 
intention to keep me out of sight, I never took the 
trouble to ascertain. If I had not heard many in- 
ferior sermons from prominent pulpits durin^^ the 
General Conferences, I might have thought my grade 
as a preacher was not considered up to the require- 
ments of these pulpits, but I did not have even that 
simple solution to help me in this quandary. But 
I learned some valuable lessons by such experiences. 
One was that he who would secure fair recognition, 



92 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



not to say prominence^ or get on in official favor, must 
plan and work for it; in a word, be something of a 
^^Church politician/^ How to do this and maintain 
my self-respect I have been too dull to understand. 

Perhaps, in a biographical sketch, one should 
mention his maiden speech in the General Confer- 
ence, especially if it require no opulence of diction. 
Mine was very brief, but I was asked by the chair- 
man to repeat it, which I did. A ^^muddle^^ had 
come about regarding the question whether the Dis- 
cipline required the journals of the Annual Confer- 
ences to be brought to the General Conference for 
review, or whether the printed copy of the Journal 
would answer instead. Strange to say, quite a 
number of leading men contended for the written 
journal, as kept by the secretary, while others op- 
posed this view in various but inconclusive ways. 
After considerable time had been consumed in thisi 
tangle, I finally mustered sufficient courage to claim 
the floor and ventured the following : ''Mister Chair- 
man. The Discipline does not require that the jour- 
nal shall be brought to the General Conference, but 
a copy ; nor does it prescribe whether that copy shall 
be written or in print." Bishop Merrill, who occu- 
pied the chair, smiled approval. Whereupon Dr. 
Arthur Edwards, owing to the prevailing confusion, 
called for order and asked that my speech be re- 
peated. The Chair granted the request, the speech 
was repeated, with the citation of paragraph and 



UPPEE IOWA CONFEEENCE. 93 

section of the law^ and the debate was over. This 
was the first, shortest, and most effective speech I 
ever delivered in a General Conference. It was a 
small affair in all respects, but it saved time. 

A few times since — perhaps three or four — I have 
succeeded in getting the floor of the General Con- 
ference, but never made a speech that was either 
great, glorious, or decisive. The fact is, the undig- 
nified squabble for the floor, only to see it assigned 
to some one whom the Chair preferred should speak, 
usually deterred me from making the effort; or if 
I did, so greatly embarrassed me that, if I gained 
the floor, I was unfitted for satisfactory speech. 

The only other speech I attempted at Baltimore 
was in opposition to increasing the number of our 
small Christian Advocates, contending that one great 
metropolitan weekly, which could be made a necessity 
in well-nigh every Methodist family — leaving a field 
for more minute local Church journalism to Annual 
Conference enterprise — would be more powerful for 
good than so many small non-self -sustaining Advo- 
cates, which must be supported as pensioners on the 
Book Concern ; thus consuming large sums of money 
which rightfully belonged to the superannuated min- 
isters. It is not necessary to say that my view did 
not prevail. Whether historj^ has vindicated it seems 
yet an open question. 

Cedar Eapids District. — At the end of this Con- 
ference year, September, 1876, Bishop Foster asked 



94 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



my consent to change me from the superintendency 
of Cedar Falls District to that of Cedar Kapids 
District. Of course he had authority to make the 
change without consulting me, but was not disposed 
to do so without my consent. His proposition I ac- 
cepted gladly, as it gave me opportunity to reside at 
Iowa City, near my aged and infirm parents. For 
other important reasons also I thought the change 
desirable. The interests of our Church at Iowa City 
gave me much concern, and I was anxious to do 
what I could to promote a more wholesome religious 
atmosphere where hundreds of youth were gathered 
for education at the State University, yet exposed to 
evil conditions maintained by drinking-saloons on 
one hand, and various shades of infidelity and liberal- 
ism, prominently advocated, on the other. At Mount 
Vernon, too, the seat of Cornell College, under the 
auspices of our Conference, was a student body which 
any minister of Christ might crave the opportunity 
to address upon the highest and noblest as well as 
most delicate and heart-searching themes of the 
gospel. 

Cedar Eapids had taken on new and enlarged 
commercial life, and our Church there had grown 
to a membership of five or six hundred and had 
built a commodious house of worship and an excel- 
lent parsonage. Besides these three leading charges, 
the district embraced a considerable number of sec- 
ond and third grade, financially and numerically, 



UPPEE IOWA CONFEEENCE. 95 



though relatively of first grade in intelligence and 
spiritual interests. My appointment to this district 
was regarded by some a promotion, by others a 
scheme which boded no good for me, but was not 
perceived by the bishop. The outcome justified both 
opinions. However, I saw and felt, from the first 
suggestion by Bishop Foster, it was heavily weighted 
with responsibilities, not only in respect of pulpit 
work, but in a nice yet firm handling of delicate 
questions of administration. Some of these questions 
were intensely interesting, but as they have passed 
their day, it were superfluous to detail them now. 
The rejection of their appointed pastor by the Church 
at Iowa City met me at the threshold of the Con- 
ference year, and developed a class of unique condi- 
tions and some novel questions. The adjustment I 
made had been advised against by Bishop Foster in 
our correspondence regarding the matter. ISTeverthe- 
less I adhered to my decision, and at the next session 
of the Annual Conference, Bishop Ames — considered 
the ablest administrative officer in our Church at 
that time — after jokingly terming me "The Auto- 
crat,^' approved my administration in the case. 

The year 1878 was rendered memorable in Iowa 
by the campaign for a prohibitory amendment to the 
State Constitution for the suppression of the sale 
of intoxicating beverages, this to be decided by a non- 
partisan election. As Iowa City was the seat of three 
large breweries, besides a number of saloons, it was 



96 



MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



quite a storm-center in this notable straggle. The 
large Bohemian, German, and Irish population of 
that city and county opposed the amendment; and 
"being mostly Eoman Catholic, the influence of the 
two large organizations of that faith was against us. 
Public discussions in the opera house, halls, and 
churches drew large audiences and afforded many 
strong speeches and lively debates. With other min- 
isters, I took an active part in this campaign, both 
in the meetings and in work at the polls. The fury 
of some of our antagonists was at times dramatic, 
well-nigh tragic, and sometimes funny. Some of 
my friends enjoyed a hearty laugh at the expense 
of my large and sometimes rosy nose because of a 
remark made by one of my beer-soaked auditors, 
to-wit, ^^I bet you if de troot vas known dat man 
he-self take his schnapps.^^ 

But we carried the State by nearly 30,000 ma- 
jority. Certainly we had great rejoicing. But, alas ! 
our joy was turned into sorrow by a decision of the 
supreme court, a majority of which body declared 
the vote invalid because of a technical omission by 
one of the clerks of the Legislature. Like the seven- 
teen-year locusts crawling from the shell of a dead 
past, the court made a sting of the letter that killeth 
by which to destroy the life-giving spirit of the people. 

As a rule, however, district affairs moved along 
smoothly, but as the time to elect delegates for the 
next General Conference drew on, the sky of ecclesi- 



UPPER IOWA CONFEEENCE. 97 



astical politics began to darken; for it was evident 
that the election of a number of bishops and other 
general officers would be called for at that session. 
That I was to have ^^the fight of my life^^ seemed 
predetermined ; not with the people, nor the Churches, 
nor the rank and file of ministers, but with Church 
politics and politicians. "Why it should have been 
my lot to have so much ^^fighting^^ I have often been 
puzzled to understand; I have thought no one could 
love peace and harmony more than I, and have queried 
whether I did not often concede too much to others 
for the sake of peace ? But here it was again, the old 
fight revived to prevent my being elected a delegate 
to the ensuing General Conference. Before I had 
given special thought to this election I was told a 
^^tickef ^ had been made up and was being advocated ; 
a ticket which not only omitted my name and that 
of every one who had been friendly teward my atti- 
tude in these affairs, but was made up of names which, 
with one exception, represented the ^^crushing out^^ 
sentiment and policy which had prevented my elec- 
tion eight years before. This aroused the indigna- 
tion and opposition of a large number of the mem- 
bers of the Conference. While I sought to avoid all 
unkind personalities-, and to hold my heart aloof 
from all strifes of opinion, ihe determination to crush 
any man who would not support certain candidates 
I frankly denounced. Many other brethren thought 
likewise and were disposed to cast their votes for 
7 



98 MEMOIES AXD SEEMOXS. 



men who opposed this policy. Thus the issue was 
made, and mv name, contrary to mv S"ao:o:estion, was 
put on this ticket of self-defense. The strife was 
exceedingly unpleasant^ needlessly bitter, but the on- 
set was relentless and the resistance correspondingly 
firm. The head of the first- formed ticket was elected, 
the rest defeated. The opposition to my election hav- 
ing been most strenuous, reacted in my favor, giving 
me the highest number of votes, which made me the 
^^leader^ of the delegation. The extent to which some 
of the bishops, editors, secretaries, and publishing 
agents of the Church permitted themselves to be 
prejudiced against me in this contest, without seek- 
ing in any way, so far as I could learn, to ascertain 
my side or view of the case, has always seemed to me 
unaccountable on any ground of fair dealing. With 
but few exceptions, they generally treated me as under 
ban. Perhaps they regarded it as an act of temerity, 
if not disloyalty, that I did not yield to the behest 
of a general officer of the Church. One of these 
officers, later a bishop, now deceased, acknowledged 
to me this bias, and that the cause of it was misrep- 
resentations made to him regarding me. There is 
much, very much more of this part of my life story, 
but I will not weaiy the reader with it, nor seem 
to nurse old grievances nor tarnish the good name 
of my beloved Church by detailing what I long ago 
forgave, and it were well for all to forget. 

Of course all these things thoroughly disgu&ted 



UPPER IOWA CONPERElsrCE. 99 



me with "Church politics'^ and politicians. However, 
I may as well record here that, although I have 
gone so far as to consent to the use of my name, 
my rule has been never to vote or work for myself 
as a candidate for official honors in a General or 
Annual Conference. 

An exception to this rule, in part, occurred when 
upon the death of Dr. Mendenhall, editor of the 
Methodist Review, I yielded to the urgent request 
of certain ministers to have my name presented to a 
meeting of members of the Book Committee and of 
certain bishops, whose business it was to appoint an 
editor to fill that position. After considerable hesi- 
tation I consented to this movement; and, having 
been thus put forward, I did what seemed fair yet 
modest to further my candidacy, though with little 
expectation of success. Ha^^ng undertaken it, I de- 
sired to make a respectable showing before the Com- 
mittee. This I sought to accomplish by writing to 
a few prominent men, laymen and ministers, includ- 
ing at least one member of the Committee, asking 
that if they thought favorably of my candidacy to 
please write or speak to others and to members of 
the Committee in my behalf. This, I think, states 
the full measure of my effort in this matter. When 
I learned that the Committee had decided upon Dr. 
William V. Kelley to succeed Dr. Mendenhall, I felt 
they had made a wise selection, and when I read 
his salutatory I rejoiced in the decision, for I felt, 



100 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



though I was ignorant as to who were the other 
candidates, he was surely the right man. Having 
been a subscriber to and reader of the Review every 
year, save one, during a ministry of over fifty years, 
I am still of the opinion that a better choice could 
not have been made under the circumstances. 

N'otwithstanding great abuses are wrought by ec- 
clesiastical politicians, it is never fair to hold guilty 
a Church or any organization for abuses or miscon- 
duct practiced by individual officers, members, or 
coteries of such organizations, unless these wrongs 
are fostered or approved by the organized bodies as 
such. Human nature is the same weak affair the 
world over. It is but frail material of which to 
build the Church of God. At one time Christ had in 
the twelve members of His ministerial body a Judas 
who betrayed Him, a Peter who denied knowing 
Him, and swore to» it. James and John tried through 
their mother to commit Him to giving them the high- 
est offices in the political kingdom which they ex- 
pected Him to establish; yet, with the others, they 
forsook and left Him with the mob at Gethsemane. 
But Christ went to the greatest lengths He could 
to save Judas, letting him work out his treacherous 
scheme to the finish. Of Peter, James, and John 
He made eventually good and saintly ministers, 
honored apostles whom He loved and trusted. Later^ 
Paul rebuked Peter for practicing duplicity, and Paul 
had sharp contention about Mark with Barnabas, ^^a 



UPPER IOWA CONPEEENCE. 101 



man full of faith and the Holy Spirit;'^ insomuch 
that they parted company. Mark proved a good 
servant of God^s cause, and Paul fought a good fight^ 
kept the faith, and died in expectation of a crown 
of right-eousness. He had said to pagans who wanted 
to worship him, "We are men of like passions with 
yourselves;^' and he wrote, "We have this treasure 
(of saving grace) in earthen vessels/' 

We make a great mistake when we decisively hand 
over any one to the bad for wrong-doing resulting 
from weakness, or from eyes holden by prejudice or 
misconception; a greater mistake when we discredit 
the Church because of the wrongdoing of its mem- 
bers or ministers, and a yet greater mistake when 
we become disaffected toward the Church because 
certain abuses prevail for a time, and leading men 
lend a hand to entrenching these evil things in the 
Church. All this is of a piece with the shallow 
reasoning of the ungodly, who justify their own recre- 
ance to God and duty on the ground that they see 
recreance in Church members. They fail to see that 
human life is a process which separates mankind 
into two grand classes, those who are being saved, 
and those who are in process of perishing; fail to 
recognize that the Church on earth is a spiritual 
nursery, hospital, and gymnasium; a nursery for 
children to keep them in or near childhood inno- 
cence; a hospital where sinners, the spiritually sick, 
find a Physician; and a gymnasium where they find 



102 MEMOIES AXD SEEMOXS. 



exercise unto godliness — not a community of "saints 
made perfect/^ Hence^ they try to fortify themselves 
as incurables rather than join the convalescents in 
the Church. 

Moreover, I believe and expect that the more 
serious abuses which have a hold in the Church will 
eventually be cast off. Of course^ we can not expect 
to see a perfect Church in this worlds short of the 
millennium. It is high time^ I concede^ that these 
gross evils were corrected. For many years we have 
been suffering loss of members^ loss of spiritual life 
and soul-saving power, and, although great special 
efforts have been organized to bring these spiritual 
interests up to a degree somewhat in proportion to 
our numerical, financial, social, educational, and or- 
ganic strength, we have sadly come short of hoped 
for results, lumbers, culture, organization, and 
energy each have significance in this work, but none 
nor all can substitute spiritual devotement. Self- 
seeking, if fostered in the Church and fortified 
among the general officers, nurtures unbecoming, often 
disreputably unfair schemes and rivalries among min- 
isters and their friends. And laymen, ambitious for 
preferment in secular politics, sometimes regard a 
delegate's seat in the General Conference or an ebulli- 
tion of fulsome stuff in the Church papers as a definite 
asset. 

There was considerable interest felt in the election 
of bishops at this (Cincinnati) General Conference 



UPPER IOWA CONPEEENCE. 103 



of 1880, and the Conference had authorized the elec- 
tion of four. This election disclosed some rather 
questionable management by certain "leaders/^ and 
convinced many that it was a cut-and-dried affair. 
By what seemed an arrangement with the committee 
that selected the preachers to supply the various pul- 
pits in and about the seat of Conference, certain 
ministers chosen to preach at a certain Church were 
understood to be favored candidates for the episco- 
pacy. When the election transpired three of these 
ministers were elected on the first ballot, and there 
was a difference of but seven between the highest 
and lowest votes of the three; indicating, many 
thought, that their supporters were in the main the 
same. What further seemed to indicate a scheme in 
behalf of these three, without implicating them, was 
a motion promptly made by a prominent leader in 
Church politics, when the election was announced, to 
postpone indefinitely the further election of bishops. 
The object of this motion was recognized at once 
as a move to prevent the election of Dr. E. 0. Haven, 
who had received the highest number of votes among 
the unsuccessful candidates in the preceding ballot; 
and who was known as being not in favor with the 
aforesaid management. The vote on this motion to 
indefinitely postpone showed that its object was 
frankly resented, being so close in the ordinary 
count that a yea and nay vote was demanded. This 
of course revealed who constituted the opposition to 



104 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



Dr. Haven, and who were for fair play; and the 
latter won. The motion to indefinitely postpone was 
lost. The display of large photographs of the three 
bishops-elect in the front windows of the Book Con- 
cern strengthened the belief that the election was 
^^cnt and dried.^^ That night, in the corridors and 
lobbies of the hotels where delegates most did con- 
gregate, there was lively conversation regarding the 
election and evident disapproval of the tactics by 
which Dr. Haven was sought to be defeated. His 
special friends and many others, on general principles 
of fair dealing, worked earnestly in his behalf, and 
the balloting the next day elected him by a handsome 
vote. Conspicuous among those who had secured his 
election were men who had been his pupils at college, 
and knew his admirable traits and transparent in- 
nocence of partisan scheming. 

Another incident which clinched the conviction of 
this partisan scheming was the fact that no photo- 
graph of Bishop Haven elect appeared in the Book 
Concern window the afternoon following his election. 
Evidently the authorities there were not prepared for 
this partial defeat of the scheme. 

It had never been my privilege to have personal 
acquaintance with Dr. E. 0. Haven, but I had ob- 
served his public career with interest and, in some 
instances, admiration. His writings evidenced schol- 
arship and clear thinking. His presidency of Michi- 
gan University under peculiarly trying circumstances, 



UPPER IOWA COJ^FEEENCE. 105 



following the administration of Dr. Tappen^ the 
idolized and masterful mind, who the student body 
of that institution seemed determined could not and 
should not have a successor who might equally de- 
serve their respect, not to say reverence, was a test 
which few men could have borne, and in which 
extremely few could have triumphed as did he. 
Moreover, I had observed in the General Conference 
legislation his judicial and constructive abilities often 
relieved the wrangle of debate by a suggestion or 
motion which clarified and harmonized the chaos of 
crude or partisan opinions. Withal, there were in 
him such fineness of fiber and unusual gentleness 
of spirit, combined with a completeness of personal 
discipline which I coveted for our Board of Bishops. 
Of course we rejoiced in our success in placing him 
there; but our rejoicing was soon to be turned into 
mourning by the disposition of episcopal residences, 
which allotted him the hardships of the Pacific Coast, 
where his delicate physique was broken down, soon 
to be followed by his death. Earely have I thought 
of the sacrifice of this noble man without a feeling 
of indignation. 

In our Annual Conferences it has been, and per- 
haps may yet be, affirmed that most of our ministers 
are willing to go uncomplainingly to any charges to 
which they may be appointed by the general super- 
intendent, provided they can feel those appointments 
have come about hy legitimate influences. But illegiti- 



106 MEMOIES AND SEEMOITS. 



mate influences cause discontent and heart-burnings 
among these faithful men and their families, to whose 
self-denying devotement the Church chiefly owes 
its growth and success. These improper influences, 
whether brought to bear by general or district su- 
perintendents, pastors or laymen, turn aside the 
light of providential and spiritual guidance in fixing 
the appointments and rob the faithful pastor of the 
consciousness of providential allotment and divine 
guidance in undertaking his designated work. The 
old-fashioned divine fire that burned on the altar 
of the preacher^s heart sent him rejoicing to the 
hardest and poorest charges to kindle a flame of 
saving power. But in too many instances it has 
been substituted by the flame which self-confident 
Nadabs and Abihus have kindled from embers of 
personal ambition or official favoritism. 

A renovating of ecclesiastical conditwns seems 
essential to any thoroughgoing spiritual reformatioai 
which may be hoped for beyond the local revivals 
here and there incident to the genuine work of some 
faithful pastor or evangelist. The ^^great revival/' 
^^spiritual uplifting/' which some have been prophe- 
sying as imminent, seems to hold aloof; waiting, I 
ween, until we put away as^a Church that over- 
shadowing sin termed ^Vorldliness,'' with all its 
brood of self-seeking, brag, and self-complacent am- 
bitions. When we cease to waste time and money in 
fruitless debate over an impractical paragraph in 



UPPEE IOWA CONFEEEKCE. 107 



the Discipline — about amusements^ which the pastors 
do not, because they can not enforce — but go to work 
with thorough determination to revolutionize churchly 
conditions, so as to disembarrass ourselves of the 
weights and sins most effectively besetting us, we 
may confidently hope for the opening of ^^the win- 
dows of heaven/^ The most quaint, original, ambi- 
tious, and perhaps able of our later bishops said 
to me, semi-humorously : ''There have been but two 
men in our time for whose fame I would give a 
farthing. What does the f amie of our bishops amount 
to? 0! I admit Pappy Asbury will always be re- 
membered, because he was the first — but all the 
rest will be forgotten/^ But it occurred to me, though 
I did not have the opportunity to tell him, our 
bishops could not only immortalize their names, but 
more successfully than any others could, relieve the 
Church of onerous burdens. They could prevent 
to a great extent fossilized coteries, "rings,^^ etc. 
They could defeat tendencies to habitual favoritism 
in the Annual Conferences. They could emancipate 
many good and able ministers from the cramping 
conditions which official mis-estimate or misunder- 
standing, by misrepresentation perhaps, has crystal- 
lized about them. They could dispel many causes 
of disaffection which are nurtured by oflScial con- 
ventionalism. They could convincingly show they 
represent a gospel of self-denial and unworldliness 
by leading a movement to limit the episcopal term of 



108 MEMOIES AlsB SEEMONS. 



office to twelve^ if not eight years^ by a Disciplinary 
rule. The practise of a life term of office is without 
warrant of constitution or statute, and contrary to 
the implications of our Church principles and polity ; 
it is practical prelatism in the face of our non-pre- 
latic doctrine of but two orders. Wesley evidently 
regarded Asbury's assumption of the title Bishop, in 
imitation of a prelatic Church, as a usurpation, and 
for it roundly upbraided him. (See Tyerman's Life 
of J ohn Wesley. ) 

The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, holds 
the episcopacy as an order, higher than presbyter or 
elder, and this its leading men regard as one of the 
main impediments to organic union with our Church. 
Either they must yield that point, or we must sacrifice 
our principle to attain organic union with them. At 
that cost to our Church I am free to record my hope 
that such union may never he effected. The two 
ranks or orders in the ministry, deacon and elder, 
are authorized by the New Testament; the bishopric 
as a distinct and higher order is a growth of human 
ambition. We practice this evil in spite of our theory 
when permitting a life term in the office of general 
superintendent. 

The district superintendency — .that has been 
known for many years as the presiding eldership, 
and regarded as unsatisfactory by many of our people 
— could be made satisfactory and more useful with- 
out revolutionary change, by two or three modifica- 



UPPEE IOWA CONFEEENCE. 109 



tiong, to-wit: Let the Annual Conferences severally 
fix the number, and the bishop the form of the dis- 
tricts; let the bishop nominate, and the Conference 
confirm in the appointment of district superin- 
tendents; and the term of office for the district su- 
perintendent should be limited to four years; and 
after one term he should be ineligible to that office 
in that Conference for a term of four years. 

These modifications would prevent or cast off 
many abuses v^^hich work much harm, dissatisfaction, 
and alienation in the Church. The enjoyment of 
power in its various forms beguiles less and is less 
prone to arrogance when limited to short terms of 
office, although the ^^Church politicians^^ we have 
always with us. 

The odium which people have come to attach to 
the term ^^politician'^ is due to the fact that many 
men engaged in political affairs are but adventurers 
who are true to no principle or cause, but are seeking 
only personal wealth or advancement. To gain per- 
sonal advantage from the demands or grievances of 
the people; or if they have none, to make them 
believe they have is the trick he never wearies in 
plying, for the people seem never weary of being 
duped. The popular susceptibility to humbug is a 
large portion of his stock in trade, and affords him 
office and wealth. If he be a man of no deep oon- 
victions, but is tactful, he needs but third or fourth- 
rate talent to come to the front in a political party. 



110 MEMOIES AND SEEMOlfS. 



either as manager^ tool^ or candidate for office. He 
flourishes best in the absence of great issues or 
emergencies which demand and call out the ablest 
men. In the ^^piping times of peace^^ he attains to 
the higher offices, as the weeds outgrow the corn 
when the plow and hoe are idle. Professional poli- 
ticians^ the mo-st dangerous of our ^"^dangerous 
classes/' are the great bane of American civilization 
and make the hardest knot in the hardest problems 
of our politics, municipal. State, and National. 

But bad as are these, they are no worse nor more 
harmful than their brothers, the Church politicians 
of every Church and age. Psj^chologically of the 
same type, the tact of the latter seems more covert 
and subtle because muffled with sanctimony. To de- 
ceive the elect their professions are couched in Bib- 
lical phraseology. Morally obtuse, they are the more 
despicable in their acts, since usually good men are 
their dupes. Their success and prominence impair 
the soul-saving power of the Church, and disgusted, 
disaffected, and perhaps lost souls are their victims. 

But there is a type of Church ^^eader'^ who is 
reprehensible in a much less degree. He is sincerely 
devoted to the success of the Church, but lacking 
in delicate moral perception, would further that suc- 
cess by adroit scheming rather thaji by frank elabora- 
tion of an indwelling, all-dominating spiritual life. 
He is apt to regard Church offices as honors to be 
scrambled for, and, looking upon the ablest of his 



UPPER IOWA CONFEEENCE. Ill 



brethren as his natural rivals, deems it a reprisal 
if he is elected to an office or appointed to a posi- 
tion for which they have been mentioned. It is easy 
to see why such an one, when occupying a position 
of influence in the Church, regards it but a vantage 
ground from which to gain higher, perhaps the high- 
est office; easy to see why he is interested in keeping 
able but modest men out of view; and in pouring 
extravagant praises upon his official superiors, or 
suggesting impossible promotion to others, to obtain 
their votes. It is true a man may honestly aspire to 
a position in which he believes himself fitted to do 
a better and largcT work than others can, but it is 
not true that he is the proper judge to decide upon 
that fitness. Hence any scheming for one's own 
ecclesiastical promotion is an impertinence. To gain 
high respect by attaining office is not half so great 
a thing as to gain such respect without office. To 
be held in the highest respect by others can not 
compensate for a loss of self-respect; and a lofty 
soul asks vote or leave of no man to respect himself. 



CHAPTEE IV. 



The Pastorate. 

Iowa City. — In the autiunn of 1882 I had com- 
pleted my term of four years as presiding elder of 
Cedar Eapids District, but as before stated, I re- 
sided in Iowa City during three years of that term 
in order that I might be near my aged parents, who 
lived in North Liberty, a village eight miles from 
that place, where by an easy drive we could see them 
often, and from which place they could visit us. At 
the session of the Upper Iowa Conference in Septem- 
ber of this year, at the request of members of the 
Official Board of our Iowa City Church, I was ap- 
pointed their pastor. Having been well acquainted 
with this Church from the time of our first settling 
in Iowa, October, 1854, and especially familiar with 
its affairs by reason of my oversight of it as presiding 
elder, I entered upon this pastorate with a definite 
conception of its needs and opportunities. There 
was a clear line of cleavage running through the 
city which distinguished the brewery, saloon, and 
otherwise rough element on the one hand, and the 

112 



THE PASTOEATE. 



113 



Protestant and American element on the other. The 
latter embraced a large per cent of cultured and highly- 
moral people^ and the Protestant Churches contained 
many of both piety and refinement. There were, of 
course, many Americans who, on account of business 
considerations, were influenced by the vested interests 
of three large breweries and a number of saloons to 
cater more or less to that element in matters of trade, 
politics, and municipal government. However, the 
city as a municipality was in the main well governed, 
and the people generally took pride in maintaining 
a reputation for decency and order. 

There was yet another element which rendered 
the situation complex and dangerous to the young 
people of the city and to a large number of students 
attending the State University here. This element 
represented liberalism, rationalism, and rank infi- 
delity; not well discriminated, but blending in a 
general discrediting of the Bible and evangelical re- 
ligion. The chief exponents of liberalism were the 
members, adherents, and pastor of a Church which 
was a sort of amalgam of Universalists, Unitarians, 
and nondescript ^'^free-thinkers.^^ The pastor was a 
well-educated and suave Unitarian who boldly as- 
sumed superiority in culture for himself and his 
Church, He put into the hands of young people 
circular letters which definitely professed this superi- 
ority, and implied inferiority and antiquated char- 
acter on the part of evangelical Churches; and even 

8 



114 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



invaded, with these circulars, Christian homes of 
various denominations in the city. The liberalistic 
propaganda were reinforced by a number of pro- 
fessors of the University Faculty, one or two of whom, 
I was told, were self-declared atheists; and others 
were somewhere in the regions of agnosticism or, 
perhaps, the Tubingen school of rationalism. Some 
of these were high-grade specialists in their depart- 
ments and, by so much, had a strong hold on their 
positions in the university, as also upon the minds 
of their pupils. While of course they would not 
directly teach their irreligious views in their classes, 
they nevertheless embraced frequent opportunities, it 
was said, to discredit religion by sneers, slurs, and 
innuendo. 

These elements had created an atmosphere deadly 
to spiritual religion as well as to orthodox belief. 
While the president and several other members of 
the Faculty were devoted and outspoken members 
of evangelical Churches, there were others of this 
corps of teachers who, though members of these 
Churches, were apparently timid or temporizing, or 
perhaps overpolitic as to the avowal of religious 
fealty. President Thatcher and his successor, Dr. 
Pickard — the former aggressively, the latter prudently 
— were men of genuine and strooig Christian char- 
acter. Dr. Leonard, a Baptist, and Dr. Fellows, a 
Methodist, were strong and outspoken in advocacy 



THE PASTOEATE. 



116 



of evangelical religion and moral reforms; especially 
in the cause of temperance. But such was the senti- 
ment and influence of the most influential man of 
the Board of Eegents that these two able professors 
were dropped from the Faculty. The same influential 
officer of the Board was said to have given it out, when 
seeking to replace them, that ^^no preacher need 
apply.'' 

The effect of these conditions was evinced by 
timidity, as it seemed to me, on the part of the evan- 
gelical Churches and their loss of aggressive force. 
Their pastors were faithful men, especially in a social 
way, and attractive in the pulpit. But the mental 
atmosphere was laden with moral poison so obtrusive 
and stifling that, in their amiable avoidance of con- 
troversy and doctrinal preaching, they failed to in- 
spire courage in their friends, and by the enemy were 
construed as cowed, if not ready to capitulate. Mean- 
time, truly religious young people, sent by godly 
parents in various parts of the State to be educated 
at the university, surprised and grieved their parents 
and neighbors, when returning to their homes, with 
evident loss of spiritual devotement: some of them 
stuffed with conceited half-truths and whole fallacies 
of a liberalist, rationalist, or infidel sort, and some 
with definitely irreligious sentiments, had sunken into 
habits of inebriety and broken-down character. These 
statements are made here as not implying a per- 



116 MEMOIES AND SEKMONS. 



sonal investigation in each case^ but as a matter of 
partly personal observation and partly of general, and 
frequent information which the writer regarded valid. 

In venturing upon this situation as I understood 
it, it seemed clear that, besides prayer and right 
li\dng, nothing was worth while on my part but open, 
outspoken, aggressive antagonism. This meant an- 
other fight; against a line the center of which was 
held by liberalism and rationalism, one wing by ag- 
nosticism and atheism, the other by destructive criti- 
cism and Christian formalism; besides, the "Bats,^^ 
which were ready to be bird or beast, according as 
one or the other of the combatants would seem to 
prevail. This course I determined upon without 
previous announcement or advertising of any kind. 
The first thing was to inspire confidence in their 
Church and faith in the minds and hearts of our 
people, insomuch that they would not feel like apolo- 
gizing for being orthodox Christians. Meantime, pro- 
fessors from the university and students from the 
law department who relished an argument began to 
drop in ; and after a while they grasped the fact that 
old-fashioned evangelical religion ^^had a case^^ and 
was not to be pooh-poohed out of court by an array 
of pretentious theories flaunted by second-hand think- 
ers as "advanced thought ;^^ that sin is a fact, not a 
mere mistake to be corrected by culture, but a crime 
in personal character, self-determined, but remediable 



THE PASTOEATE. 



117 



by only ^^the Lamb of God which taketh away the 
sin of the world/^ 

Of course I am not disposed to go into the details 
of the story of my part in this good-natured but 
interesting fight. As for the result^ it is best told 
by the following resolutions^ adopted by the Official 
Board of the Methodist Church at Iowa City, which 
seem a necessary part of these memoirs : 

^^The committee appointed to prepare a paper ex- 
pressive of the sentiments of the Church in view of 
the removal of our pastor, beg leave to present the 
following report: 

^We, the members of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church of Iowa City, Iowa, having learned that our 
pastor, Eev. Emory Miller, D. D., is about to leave 
us, and by appointment to enter upon a new field 
of labor, desire to expr^s our high appreciation of 
his ministrations among us, both as a preacher and 
as a pastor. His sermons are not only profound 
and eloquent, but also pre-eminently instructive and 
edifying. We rejoice in the great work he has done 
among us, in building up the Church, rebuking infi- 
delity and in convincing those in doubt of the truth 
as it is in Jesus. 

^^Brother Miller and family have become greatly 
endeared to this Church and community for their 
uniform Christian courtesy, their personal worth, and 
their earnest devotion. We deeply regret their re- 



118 MEMOIES AN-D SEEMONS. 



moval from us, but assure them of our high esteem 
and affection and commend them to the confidence 
and Christian sympathy of all with whom they may 
become associated in Church fellowship. 

^^EespectfuUy submitted, 

S. ]Sr. Fellows^ 
Levi Eobinson, 
A. W. Pratt, 

Committee. 

^^The above unanimously adopted by a rising vote. 

"Iowa City, Iowa, September 15, 1882.^' 

From a letter received twenty-four years later 
from Mr. J. C. Cochran, who was then and still is a 
member of the Official Board of the Methodist Church 
at Iowa City, I quote the following: "At that time 
Unitarianism was rampant in Iowa City, and many 
of our students, as well as others, were led away 
from the true faith; but providentially you came 
and all the false dogmas were soon dispersed. Infi- 
delity received a blow, the influence of which still 
goes on. On these facts the resolution was based, and 
had the unanimous approval of the Board. I said 
at the meeting that it was like the bread cast upon 
the waters, — it would be gathered after many days.^^ 

Whatever was accomplished in 'this respect was 
done without the least bitterness. No occasion was 
found for sensational methods or advertising of 
themes. No offensive epithets or undignified phrasing 
were resorted to, but a plain, positive setting forth 



THE PASTOEATE. 



119 



of Christ crucified, as power of God and the 
wisdom of God/' and all that rays out from that 
truth, was relied on to relume the clouded religious 
atmosphere of that time and place. The occasion 
afforded opportunity to put to the proof opinions 
which I had held and followed for years, namely, 
that pious reiteration of religious sentiment or pan- 
dering to the flippant aversion to doctrinal sermons, 
so commonly met with, may please many good but 
superficial folk, but can not win nor satisfy the un- 
instructed but serious doubter; can not command 
the respect of the rational and candid inquirer nor 
pose the self-confident and plausible, the boastful but 
cultured opponent. Secondly, candor, fairness, and 
clearness, opening a clear channel for sincere thought 
and action, free from prejudice, boasting, or bluff, 
will give more permanent direction to the current 
of religious thought and work than can be accom- 
plished by steering the drift on the surface. 

The prosperity which came in later years to the 
Church in Iowa City, I was informed by Eev. E. D. 
Parsons, the pastor who succeeded me, was due in a 
large degree also to my organization of classes of 
children and youth for prayer and religious instruc- 
tion. This kind of work I had carried on in my 
pastoral charges for many years before Ep worth 
League or Christian Endeavor societies were organ- 
ized. The idea that religious instruction is the chief 
object of Sunday school and catechetical exercises had 



120 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



long seemed to me erroneous. The early induction 
of children into conscious acceptance with God I 
had regarded the chief object. Hence I had main- 
tained what I termed Sunday school prayer-meet- 
ings, and at Iowa City practiced virtually the same. 

THE THOMAS TRIAL FOR HERESY. 

While pastor at Iowa City I was called upon by 
Rev. Hiram W. Thomas, D. D., of the Rock River 
Conference, and pastor of what was styled The Peo- 
ple's Church, which held their services in Hooley's 
Theater, Chicago. He was charged with heresy by 
leading men of that Conference and cited by his 
presiding elder to appear before a committee of 
ministers for preliminary investigation, and he wished 
me to act as one of his counsel. Drs. Jewett and 
Hatfield had been selected to prosecute the case, but 
ill-health prevented the former acting, and Dr. M. 
M. Parkhurst was selected to take his place. There 
were two reasons for my agreeing to act as counsel 
for Dr.. Thomas. Eirst, we had been cordial friends 
for many years, both having been members of the 
Iowa Conference for a number of years prior to his 
transfer and appointment to a Church in Chicago. 
Secondly, w^hile I did not agree with his peculiar 
teachings, I did not regard them as antagonizing the 
standard doctrines of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
hence did not think the charge of heresy could in 



THE PASTOEATE. 



121 



fairness be sustained. Of course it was good policy 
on his part to have his defense made by counsel 
whose orthodoxy was regarded above question. Be- 
sides, I believed jealousy of his pulpit ability and 
popularity in Chicago were at the bottom of this 
onset; that this prosecution was in fact persecution, 
and was making him much undeserved trouble. On 
that teaching which is the essential core of Meth- 
odism, and without which the Church had no good 
reason for becoming a separate denomination, namely, 
^Hhe witness of the Spirit,'^ he was eminently sound 
theoretically, and exemplary in practical experi- 
ence, evincing a kindness and breadth of benevolence 
in spirit remarked upon on all hands. 

The preliminary hearing was announced for Sep- 
tember 8-9, 1881, Centenary Church, Chicago, and 
I met Dr. Thomas and the other brethren whom 
he had selected as counsel at his hotel in Chicago 
the evening previous to the day of trial. There were 
seven gentlemen, as I now remember, besides my- 
self at this meeting as counselors, of whom three 
were lawyers and four were ministers. They had 
had a previous meeting with Dr. Thomas and elab- 
orated a line of defense, including a demurrer which 
was intended to be argued in the endeavor to cut 
short the trial by estoppel or "non-suit.^^ The line 
of defense marked out to pursue in case the demurrer 
failed and the trial should go on was, to me, a curi- 
osity. But as Dr. Thomas had told them that however 



122 MEMOIES AND SEEMOITS. 



legitimate it might be, he would not adopt it until 
I came and had heard it, I listened patiently until 
it was all carefully gone over. It amounted to as- 
suming that Dr. Thomas in his preaching and book 
of sermons was in antagonism to the teachings of 
the Church, the Church was wrong and he was right, 
and this they hoped to prove. ^^Brethren,^^ I said, 
^^you expect to try this case before a committee of 
Methodist ministers; do you expect them to decide 
their Church, including themselves, is holding er- 
roneous doctrines and therefore Thomas is clear? 
The Church is not on trial. Thomas^ teachings are 
to be investigated to ascertain whether he antagonizes 
the Church. But you have conceded this antagonism 
in the underlying assumption and have given away 
the case. If this is the line of defense to be followed 
you have no use for me. I may as well go home, 
for I believe the Church is right, and if Thomas 
has; antagonized its standards of doctrine, he is 
wrong and guilty of the charge. In my view of 
the case it is a question of what are the Church's 
standards of doctrine, and do his teachings contra- 
vene them. I hold they do not, and caa make good 
my position, and if so, the committee will find stand- 
ing ground on which to acquit him.'' It is only due 
to fact to say that Dr. Thomas and the counsel fell 
in at once with this view, and this was adopted as 
the line of defense. 

The presiding elder, Dr. Willing, presided at the 



THE PASTOEATE. 



123 



investigation; Drs. Hatfield and Parkliurst conducted 
the prosec'Ution ; and in the defense^ Dr. H. "W. 
Bennett who had practiced law for abont ten years 
before entering the ministry^ led off with his argu- 
ment for the demurrer; a fruitless effort, as the de- 
murrer was overruled by the presiding officer, and 
investigation proceeded. The charge contained three 
distinct counts accusing Dr. Thomas of heresy in that 
he had antagonized the doctrines of the Church by 
teaching, 1st, tlie Bible is not all, nor equally the 
inspired Word of God; 2d, In denying the aton-enient, 
as taught in second and twentieth articles of faith; 
3d. In denying the doctrine of eternal punisliment, 
contrary to the authorized standards of doctrine of 
said Church. 

It is not my design to set out here the course 
of argumentation of either side ; suffice it to say that, 
contrary to the expectation of many of the clearest 
heads who witnessed the investigation, Thomas was 
held guilty and wa^ suspended from exercising min- 
isterial functions until the ensuing session of the 
Eock Eiver Conference (about eight weeks), when 
the main trial would be held: the ^^complaints'^ under 
investigation at Chicago to be argued as ^^charges,^^ 
Avith the penalty of exclusion affixed in case of proven 
guilt. 

This suspension of Dr. Thomas, coming on Satur- 
day morning, was quite embarrassing to him from 
the fact that his announcements for services on the 



124 MEMOIES AND SEEMOJfS. 



Sabbath at Hooley's Theater had been given in the 
Chicago dailies. To meet this diflBcnlty it was ar- 
ranged that I should preach in his stead that day, 
and that would afford time to secure substitutes for 
the following Sabbaths preceding the Conference ses- 
sion. 

When the Eock Eiver Conference convened, Oc- 
tober 3d, at Sycamore, 111., Eev. H. W. Bennet, of 
the Upper Iowa Conference, Drs. Axtel and Shepherd, 
of the Eock Eiver, and myself had charge of the de- 
fense. After a day or two Axtel and Shepherd 
dropped out, and Bennet took sick with a violent 
cholera-morbus and did not recover suflBciently to 
attend the trial. Thus it fell upon me to conduct 
the defense virtually alone. Dr. Thomas, of course, 
was on hand, and occasionally offered suggestions and 
addressed the committee. After considerable trouble 
to make up a committee of fifteen before whom to 
try the case, we finally got under weigh. Dr. (later 
Bishop) Chas. H. Fowler, a member of that Con- 
ference, had been appointed by the presiding bishop 
(Wiley) to preside at the trial. 

It will throw light on the situation to state here 
that that Conference had unfortunately fallen into 
two parties or factions, one termed the Hatfield, the 
other the Fowler faction. Never have I observed the 
proceedings of an Annual Conference in which so 
nearly the entire business was under the strain of 
partisan rivalry. As Dr. Thomas had not identified 



THE PASTOEATE. 



125 



himself with either of these parties, and his popu- 
larity in Chicago was something of a nightmare to 
these leading men, they, with their respective fol- 
lowing were bent on ridding the Conference of him. 
He had been subjected, two years before, to a vote of 
censure regarding his teachings, by a vote lacking but 
seven of being unanimous. 'Now that public senti- 
ment demanded that they should either try him on 
definite charges or cease this undiscriminating perse- 
cution, these party leaders seemed to think their 
standing in the Conference and chances of promotion 
would be enhanced in proportion as they met this 
demand for a formal and successful overthrow of 
Dr. Thomas. Hence these factions had become rivals 
in the most bitter attacks against Thomas. The ef- 
fort we made to get a committee capable of a fair 
hearing was futile. There were men on that com- 
mittee who had declared Thomas guilty and deserved 
expulsion. Undertaking to argue the case before such 
a jury seemed hopeless. Yet none of them had the 
decency to decline serving, nor the administration 
the fairness to replace them with less prejudiced men. 

The charges were the same as constituted the com- 
plaints at the investigation at Chicago substantially; 
his teaching that the Scriptures were not equally or 
wholly inspired of God ; secondly, denying the atone- 
ment in Christ ; and, thirdly, denying the doctrine of 
eternal punishment. At the investigation we had 
shown that the ^^Standards of Doctrine^' were the 



126 MEMOIES AND SERMONS. 



Articles and formularies in the Dis^^ipline^ and that 
according to these Thomas could not be condemned; 
inasmuch as the Discipline holds that the Scriptures 
contain (not^ are) a revelation from God; that 
Thomas had never denied the facte of atonement or 
of eternal punishment^ but his variance from popular 
surface preaching on these two subjecte was concern- 
ing the spiritual meaning of the former as contained 
in the symbolic and figurative terms employed in the 
Scriptures; and, concerning the latter, not the fact, 
but the mode or manner of the loss of the soul. 

The ground on which they condemned him was, 
by the ruling of the chairman, that the childreiis 
Catechism is a standard of doctrine. The same rul- 
ing was made here in the main trial by Dr. Fowler, 
hence the expulsion of Dr. Thomas was hosed on the 
Catechism, and not on a violation of the Discipline. 
This was stupid, absurd, and disgraceful. Stupid, 
because the Catechism was prepared simply for use in 
the children's classes as a means of familiarizing the 
children with the Bible, never used in questioning 
candidates for membership or ministry. Its adoption 
by the General Conference for this purpose was not 
regarded as authorizing a restatement of old doctrines 
nor the formulation of new, for the General Confer- 
ence has no authority to do either. Absurd, because 
the answers are often Scripture passages in figurative 
terms of undecided meaning. This was especially 
true of those referring to future punishment and 



THE PASTOEATE. 



127 



the blood of atonement in highly figurative terms, 
which had to be taken literally in order to make their 
point against Thomas. This use of the blood shed on 
Calvary as literally vs^ashing away sin was a disgrace 
to Christian intelligence. The verdict of the ^^com- 
mittee of fifteen^^ stood for acquittal on the first in- 
dictment, concerning the inspiration of the Bible. 
On the other two they stood six for acquittal and nine 
for condemnation. 

It was past 9 o^clock Saturday night when I closed 
my argument. A member of the committee told me 
after the trial, that had they not adjourned imme- 
diately, but had heard the closing speech of the prose- 
cution and then taken the vote, Thomas would have 
been acquitted of all charges. But his persecutors 
were wiley; and he must be convicted by all means. 
They secured an adjournment immediately upon my 
closing, and gave Dr. Hatfield until Monday evening 
to prepare his closing speech. This was not to be 
complained of so much as the fact that over Sunday 
and Monday members of the committee were sub- 
jected to intense pressure, to the extent^ I was told, 
of threats and various modes of intimidation, to gain 
and secure their votes to convict. 

The unfairness practiced towards Thomas by of- 
ficers and certain leading men of the Conference — 
even if his guilt had been conceded on all hands — 
was simply flagrant. Every move appeared to take 
for granted his conviction and expulsion. Upon this 



138 MBMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



assumption Drs. Hatfield and Parkhnrst and others, 
like the Greek soldiery insulting the body of the slain 
Hector, indulged in truculence of spirit and language 
quite discreditable to the Church, and to which neither 
Thomas nor his counsel stooped to reply. The prose- 
cutors seemed to feel that the court was organized only 
to convict, that a different decision would not do; 
hence the belaboring of members of the committee 
over Sunday and Monday. 

Eemembering the figures of speech in which the 
atoning sacrifice of Christ and the ultimate doom of 
the impenitent are set forth in the New Testament, 
and which Thomas had taught by explaining the ra- 
tional meaning of those figurative terms, we can 
easily see that to find him guilty of denying the 
atonement and eternal punishment because he did 
not teach those figures as not figurative, but literal 
statements of truth, was to make orthodoxy consist 
in literalism. It was a triumph of stupid, ignorant 
literalism over truth and common sense. But such 
was the extremity to which these jealous and blind 
partisan Church politicians were driven ; and for this 
purpose they must needs find standing ground on the 
unexpounded Biblical ^mbolism of the children's 
Catechism — a book never authorized as a standard 
of doctrine. Alas! alas! 

In addition to this deplorable outcome of the 
trial the effect on the public mind was evidently detri- 
mental to the spiritual interests of many who ought 



THE PASTOEATE. 



129 



to have been reached and saved by our Church. On 
the contrary, besides these, we lost many actual mem- 
bers in Chicago, and, it is thought, throughout the 
Northwest. Moreover, it was evidently hurtful to 
Dr. Thomas. Disgusted and wounded, his sense of 
justice deepened into aversion to the Church. Al- 
though he continued to preach the gospel and to work 
in the cause, I think he drifted in his thinking into 
more radically liberalistic views, and unsparingly 
criticised the orthodox Churches. 

We appealed from the decision of the Conference 
committee to the Judicial Conference, but in the 
meantime Dr. Thomas, having given up hope of a 
fair hearing there, proceeded to organize his "People^s 
Churcy^ in Chicago, thus forfeiting his right to ap- 
peal to the Church courts; hence the case was not 
entertained by the Judicial Conference, and Thomas 
stood expelled. 

The space I have given here to this case is owing 
to the fact that I have never seen in print an accu- 
rate statement of the main facts of the case. During 
the trial the accounts of the daily papers were so 
inaccurate as to lead Dr. Bennet to say ^^that any one 
depending on the press accounts for his information 
would certainly think none of us knew what we were 
talking about.^^ From, these accounts some of the 
Church papers drew their conclusions, and, ^^Sir 
Oracle^^ like, dispensed wisdom and smart observation 
to at least their own satisfaction. One of the ablest 

9 



130 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



of our later editors spoke, in my hearing, about ten 
years after the trial, of Dr. Thomas having been ex- 
pelled from the Church on the Discipline; and I 
replied, ^^Dr. Thomas was not expelled on the Disr- 
cipline, but on the Catechism/' ^^0 said he, "is 
that so? Well, that was wrong/' That this most 
intelligent man was misled on that subject illustrates 
both the unreliability of the newspaper and my justi- 
fication in giving this account. 



CHAPTEE V. 



St. Paul. 

Our removal from Iowa City came about by my 
accepting a call — subject to the approval and ap- 
pointment of the bishop — to First Methodist Church, 
St. Paul, Minnesota Conference. Whether this was 
a wise move on my part or not I have never been 
able to decide. It was certainly unfortunate in some 
respects, perhaps fortunate in others. Our relations 
to the Church and people of Iowa City were in every 
way pleasant. Our older daughter was a senior in 
the State University there, and our other daughter 
and son were doing well in their respective grades 
in the public schools. Mrs. Miller and I had had 
a long and cordial acquaintance with our people at 
Iowa City, we were warmly attached to them, and 
our Church work seemed upon the whole quite pros- 
perous. Had I foreseen the grief it cost the members 
and friends of that Church, and my children in the 
disturbance it occasioned them in their school rela- 
tions, I am sure I would not have assented to that 
change. But I had grown weary of the partisan strife 
in the Upper Iowa Conference, disgusted with the 

131 



132 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



Church politics and politicians, and therefore deter- 
mined to turn my back upon that whole business. 
Although the attempt to ^^crush^^ me had been de- 
feated, the whole affair was so disagreeable that I 
was disposed to regard this call as a providential 
opening to a more congenial class of conditions. 
Hence, without consulting the Official Board, I gave 
my consent to the St. Paul request. 

The Upper Iowa Conference was to convene at 
Cedar Eapids, September 20-26, 1882, Bishop Wiley 
presiding. A few days before, while he was holding 
the Des Moines Conference, he had received a dis- 
patch announcing the instantaneous death of his son 
by a destructive explosion in a business house in Cin- 
cinnati. The bishop made no apparent lamentation, 
nor suspension of his official work in the Des Moines 
Conference, but with iron nerve and quiet solemnity 
continued resolutely at his post until the official busi- 
ness, except reading appointments, was done. "With 
this burden upon him, he came to our (Upper Iowa) 
Conference. In his opening remarks he briefly re- 
ferred to the calamity, saying he did not understand 
it, but was in the hands of God, and would proceed 
to the performance of his assigned duty. The moral 
sublimity of his calm self-control awed while it 
touched the hearts of the members of the Conference. 
Toward the end of the week he asked the committee 
on public worship to appoint some one to preach in 
his stead on Sunday morning. This duty was 



ST. PAUL. 



133 



assigned me, and the letter I received from the 
bishop a few days later, expressing his gratitude for 
my ^^relieving'^ him, and his appreciation of my serv« 
ice, I have treasured as a word of encouragement 
from a man of genuine candor. 

Having received a certificate of transfer to the 
Minnesota Conference from Bishop Wiley, and hav- 
ing been appointed by Bishop Merrill, presiding at 
the Minnesota Conference, to take charge of First 
Church, St. Paul, I proceeded to move our family 
and belongings; our oldest daughter remaining at 
Iowa City to finish her senior year at the State Uni- 
versity, and Mrs. Miller, with our younger daughter 
and son, coming on after I had arrived at St. Paul 
with our goods. 

The St. Paul Methodists received us cordially 
and treated us well. We found, however, that my 
predecessor, who had a powerful hold on a number 
of the wealthy and leading families in the Church, 
and had been appointed presiding elder of the St. 
Paul District and resided in my parish, was keeping 
his hold upon them insomuch that he was virtually, 
and I but nominally though officially, pastor of this 
Church. Indeed, I was told that he had a tacit 
understanding with them that I was but to hold the 
place for the three-year term, when the rule would 
permit him to become their pastor again. Later I 
was told that he had made an effort to induce that 
charge to declare their independence of the Meth- 



134 MEMOIRS AND SEEMONS. 



odist Episcopal Church and set up for themselves an 
independent Churchy with him as their pastor. In 
this, I was told, he failed for the reason that a number 
of prominent members, among whom Hon. H. E. 
Brill was conspicuous, refused to join in the move- 
ment. 

Under these circumstances we were, of course, 
uncomfortable. He seemed to condition and balk any 
important move if it did not fall in with his wish. 
This I endured as patiently as I could for two years, 
but felt so hampered that I did but little efficient work 
here, in either pulpit or pastoral capacity. In this 
atmosphere it was plain the interests of the Church 
must suffer, and I must deteriorate instead of improve 
in ministerial efficiency. In every human aspect of 
the case I have always regarded my pastorate at First 
Church, St. Paul, a failure. Providentially, as I 
•believe, I received an invitation before the end of the 
second year from the Official Board of First Church, 
Des Moines, to become their pastor. This I accepted 
for the reason that I believed I could do more good 
there than, situated as I was, at St. Paul. Though 
it spoiled the plan of the St. Paul presiding elder, 
who had calculated on my staying the third year, it 
was a great relief to our entire household. 

Notwithstanding our stay at St. Paul involved 
so much of disagreeable association and failure, we 
formed many delightful friendships of life-long con- 
tinuance among that people and the ministers of the 



ST. PAUL. 



135 



Minnesota Conference. This fact and the incitement 
gained in certain lines of study have held it to this 
day an open question whether our sojourn there was 
not, upon the whole, fortunate. If I had been solic- 
itous for official promotion in the Church this move 
to St. Paul would have been certainly a great mis- 
take. But as there are some things possible to a min- 
ister's career greater and better than office ; I had no 
regret of that kind. The ambition to stand among 
the ^^overcomers" dwarfs all worldly ambitions. The 
path of pure self-love by way of self-respect, self- 
discovery and self-conquest^ leading on to the highest 
self-realization here and hereafter ranges higher than 
the path of the office seeker. To better the conditions 
on which perplexed minds may find their way to God, 
to be of those who, fitting the Church to turn many 
to righteousness ^^shall shine as the stars for ever and 
ever/' this is the ambition which has ever made office 
seeking seem to me a paltry business. At the ses- 
sion of the Minnesota Conference of October 8, 1884, 
held in Duluth, Bishop Fowler transferred me to 
the Des Moines Conference, and Bishop Andrews, 
presiding in the latter, appointed me pastor of First 
Church, Des Moines. 

First Church, Des Mo^es. — Des Moines at this 
time was a city of about forty thousand population, 
and being the capital city of Iowa was an interesting 
community. We had at this time three Methodist 
Churches in the city, the "First,'' ''Wesley," and 



136 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



"Asbury;'^ altogether numbering about twelve hun- 
dred members. About half of these were members 
of First Church. This Church possessed many ele- 
ments of strength. The house of worship was one 
of the best in the city, a Gothic structure, built of 
brick with stone pointings. It comfortably seated 
about six hundred people in the floor seats, and two 
or three hundred more in galleries and chairs. The 
Church ranked well in respect of social standing and, 
though it included no millionaires, had a goodly num- 
ber of "well-to-do'^ families. The Official Board was 
especially strong in professional and business ability 
and general intelligence. One careful view of the 
Sunday audience sufficiently warned the preacher that 
here his clearest, strongest, and wisest thought would 
be demanded and appreciated. Of course there were 
here some "wayside" and "stony-ground" hearers, and 
some who were ever having a tussle with the "cares of 
this world and the deceitfulness of riches," but the 
concrete sentiment of this body of worshipers was both 
intelligent and earnest. Indeed, the change from St. 
Paul to Des Moines we found congenial in many ways, 
even including that of climate; for the dry atmos- 
phere of Minnesota had proved over-stimulating to 
the nerves of Mrs. Miller and our daughters, though 
just right for me. 

Coming to a charge which had no fight awaiting 
me, no special meanness to contend with, and no 
special disaster to retrieve, just a fair open campaign 



DES MOINES. 



137 



against the worlds fleshy and devil, was a truly re- 
freshing experience. Hence I felt not only an in- 
creased responsibility, but an increased interest and 
ardor for the work. A former pastor of this Church, 
Eev. P. P. Ingalls, had facetiously told them he 
thought them "the best people he had ever known, 
not to have religion; of course, in the sense of sub- 
jective spiritual experience. He and other pastors 
had wrought with some degree of success to correct 
this discrepancy, but the significance of this criticism 
was still apparent, and plainly indicated the line of 
pulpit and pastoral effort to be pursued. 

When, from the pulpit, I challenged these intel- 
ligent men and women as to their Christian profes- 
sion resting upon their excellent morals and manners 
they met the challenge with the keenest attention. 
Substantially the challenge was put thus: "What 
more does the gospel offer or require than is con- 
tained in the practice of a perfect system of moral- 
ity After delineating an ideal character produced 
by ethical culture, I sought to show that all this could 
be attained without disturbing the essential selfish- 
ness of the man; indeed, might be practiced in en- 
tire self-complacence, and even selfishly gloried in 
as a matter of education, training, and habit. It ap- 
pears, then, the gospel proposes a change of motives; 
a substitution of unselfish for selfish motives from 
which to acquire and practice the best attainable 
ethical culture. And this power for unselfish motive. 



138 MEMOIRS AND SERMONS. 



or intent, is a new inner life. It comes by a change, 
not of opinion nor purpose merely, but of heart; a re- 
arranging of the affections in which, through self- 
renunciation, self surrenders to God, and supreme 
love to God displaces supreme love of self and all 
its objects and ideals, and readjusts, controls, and 
chastens the affections, insomuch that it is well 
said, ^^The love of God is shed abroad in the 
heart/^ When thus the ethical life, however 
crude or cultured, is studied and practiced ^^as unto 
God^' — ^that is, for love of God — it becomes a 
constant exercise of faith which subjects the actual 
to the ideal life, and thus habituates the affections, 
desires, and propensities, indeed the whole being to 
the new, unselfish mode. This habituating by active 
faith is growth in grace; genuine Christian charac- 
ter as distinguished from merely '^'^ethical culture.^^ 
Thus discriminated the spiritual experience is cut 
loose from that amiable formalism which is such a 
subtle and strong besetment, a religious iceberg in 
our cultured Churches. Without making it a hobby, 
to the exclusion or belittling of a sufiBciently varied 
pulpit teaching, this was made the main line up to 
which it was sought to rally my people, and recover 
the spiritual conditions upon which conviction of sin 
and genuine repentance and faith, grasping and em- 
bracing the Savior of sinners, might constitute this, 
indeed a soul-saving Church. With this as our steady 
aim the following winter showed some headway had 



DES MOmES. 



139 



been made. A revival effort, without the aid of an 
evangelist, resulted in an earnest, though small class 
of probationers who were duly instructed in the doc- 
trines and rules of the Church, and received to full 
membership. In the second year, however, having 
observed in the Friends Church in East Des Moines 
what seemed to be true evangelism in the work of 
Mrs. Esther Frame, assisted by her husband, I em- 
ployed this gifted and devoted Quakeress to conduct 
a revival effort in First Church. The result was a 
greatly revived Church and a large number of con- 
verts — in the neighborhood of one hundred and forty 
or fifty, as I now remember. These converts were 
brought in, not by signing cards, nor counted as con- 
verts because of holding up the hand, but from hav- 
ing presented themselves at the altar as penitents, 
and giving testimony of a change of heart. As I am 
unable now to remember the number of these converts, 
who were later received to full membership, I can only 
say that it was highly satisfactory, and marked a dis- 
tinct advance in the work of this Church. But it was 
in the spiritual uplift and rehabilitation of a goodly 
number of members of this Church that this revival 
was far reaching. One case among several which I 
now recall was that of our now sainted brother, 
Theodore Gatchel. He was an enterprising, worldly- 
minded member of the Church; naturally a jovial, big- 
hearted, enthusiastic man, and loyal, in a partisan 
sense, to his Church. But in this revival he came to 



UO MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



recognize his call to a higher, cleaner, and thorough- 
going devotement to a Christ-like life. Thus dedicat- 
ing himself to God he rose to a type of Christian life 
and activity which has left a deep impress upon the re- 
ligious and benevolent work of this city and State. 
Besides being indefatigable in mission work in and 
about Des Moines, he was the original mover in found- 
ing and giving form and impetus to the Iowa Metho- 
dist Hospital. In a meeting of the Board of Trustees 
of that institution he had just finished a plea for the 
enlargement of its provisions for charity patients, and 
had started to go to the Wednesday night prayer 
meeting, but as he reached the door leading from the 
trustee meeting he sank to the floor and breathed his 
last. He had not been ill, so far as any one knew, 
was a man of large and powerful physique, and about 
fifty-five years of age, but the last heartbeat had come 
and he was gone. His record through the nearly fif- 
teen years extending from that revival to the moment 
of his death was one of enthusiastic devotion to the 
service, of his Master, and the help of his fellow-men. 

This hospital will be, when the building now under 
construction is completed, the largest of the twenty- 
three under the management of our denomination. 
The nine and a half years since Theodore Gatchel 
projected, and James Calanan gave the financial back- 
ing to start this institution, have seen very creditable 
success. It has treated at this writing 9,700 patients, 
having a death rate of less than four per cent. No 



DES MOINES. 



141 



poor applicants have been turned away, most of them 
widows and sick, crippled or deformed children. Its 
capacity is 230 beds. Another firo-proof building is 
expected soon to replace the old central building. 
Though it has debt it is not considered financially 
embarrassed. 

In the autumn of 1886 we had a visit of several 
days from our genial friend^ Eev. Frederick 0. Hol- 
man, of St. Paul, Minn. He was, I understood, a 
graduate of Boston University and impressed me as 
being a man of unusual mental brilliancy and moral 
honesty. He had come to Minnesota hoping to re- 
cover his health, or at least prolong a life seriously 
threatened by disease of lungs, heart, and nervous 
system. Although of Methodist bringing up, he had 
been influenced in his thinking by the Unitarian 
atmosphere of Boston ; especially regarding the Trin- 
ity and the Atonement, as also the "Witness of the 
Holy Spirit.^^ We had formed an intimate, broth- 
erly acquaintance when we were both pastors of St 
Paul Churches, and on various occasions had heard 
each other in sermons and other addresses. Once, 
when walking together in St. Paul, he said, sub- 
stantially : You seem in your preaching to have a sys- 
tem, or common philosophic basis of your sermons? 
My reply was that I had not studied specific sermon- 
izing a great deal. My sermons have usually grown, 
incidentally, out of my study of truth, as a whole, 
as revealed naturally and supernaturally. Well, said 



142 MEMOIES Al^D SEEMONS. 



he, I would like to know if you would characterize 
your system, what you would call it? Aft-er a mo- 
ment's thought I replied, I have never thought of 
giving it a title, but I now think, if I did, I would 
call it The Evolution of Love. So, when visiting U5 at 
Des Moines, in our walks and talks through the city, 
we fell into our old-fashioned discussions in theology 
and philosophy, and again he insisted I ought to 
write out the system ^iiich had grown up in my 
thinking; though he did not agree with me or at least 
was not convinced of my views of the Atonement, 
Trinity, and Witness of tlie Spirit. My reply was, 
I scarcely know what I would entitle it. ^"Vell,'' 
said he, ^^from what I have gathered from our talkg 
I should think the title you mentioned in St. Paul 
would be as good as any. ^The Evolution of Love.' '' 
Although I had not given it specific thought, in the 
meantime this title seemed to have taken a deep hold 
on him. He reverted to the matter again and again, 
and pursued me with such earnest and forceful in- 
sistence as led me to believe I could not innocently 
defer the attempt at least to work out a formal st-at^ 
ment of what I had come to think was a true, clear, 
and systematic view of human life and deetiny. 
Although he was adrift in thought regarding the 
doctrines mentioned above^ he was not at rest nor 
satisfied with negations, but really hoped I might 
give him a solution of his doubts, or at least make 
such a definite failure of my own views as to confirm 



DES MOINES. 



143 



his. Thereupon I resolved to write what in about 
five years from that time was published, "The Evo- 
lution of Love/^ 

Many years before I had met Brother Holman I 
had felt dissatisfied with many existing statements of 
systematic theology as far as I knew them, but found 
no valid substitute in what seemed to me the smart 
but superficial reasonings of "Liberalism/^ The 
dikes which theological writers had thrown up against 
the tides of infidel, skeptical, and liberalistic assault 
seemed insuflScient. I felt I ought to ascertain, if 
possible, for myself at least, the immovable ground; 
and to be able to make clear to others an unchange- 
able breakwater against the insweeping tides of 
skepticism, liberalism, infidelity, license, and general 
wickedness. No chosen or preferred beliefs nor 
glowing aspirations would answer, however plausible 
or flattering or learnedly pretentious. The position 
must be candid, clear, valid, shirking nothing, so 
that when the waves of opposition sweep against or 
seek to crumble it, unmoved it will stand, because 
the necessities of thought require it and the demands 
of the heart feel its truth. 

That it cured Dr. Holman of his intellectual 
difficulties and spiritual troubles was evinced by his 
statements to me, and also by the following statement 
in later years made at his funeral by his very intimate 
friend, Dr. John Douglass, of Minneapolis: "I am 
sure that Dr. Holman would like to have me say that 



144 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



in a great crisis in his life^ when mind and heart 
were agonized and full of doubt and great problems, 
our beloved brother, Dr. Miller, was instrumental in 
so aiding him in that great soul-controversy as to 
dispose of all those tremendous doubts and give rest 
and confidence alike to mind and heart/^ 

At the end of our third year at First Church, 
Des Moines, September, 1887, the Des Moines Con- 
ference session was held in this church; Bishop Mer- 
rill presiding. My predecessors for several terms 
past had been ^^special transfers^^ who, at the expi- 
ration of their terms here, sought charges of equal 
grade in other Conferences, as there were none other 
of like grade in this. There were reasons why I did 
not do likewise: first, I had neither the knack nor 
the disposition to ^'go fishing/' as it was termed, for 
an equally good charge elsewhere; secondly, I had 
not received ^^a calF' from anywhere; thirdly, I had 
not learned of any bishop who had such a place in 
view for me; and, fourthly, I was content to make 
my home in the Des Moines Conference. Bishop 
Merrill offered me my choice of Creston, Council 
Bluffs, or Indianola. I chose Indianola, although the 
salary there was smaller by three or four hundred 
dollars than at either of the other places. But I 
thought I could be more useful in the college town 
than in the others, and for that reason decided upon 
Indianola, and was assigned that charge. 

Indianola.^ — Indianola, the county seat of War- 



INDIANOLA. 



145 



ren County and the seat of Simpson College, was 
then a pleasant town of about 2,500 people. It is 
situated on what was once a stretch of nearly level 
prairie, but now relieved by long rows of well matured 
elms and maples along its wide streets, while fruit 
and ornamental trees and vines embowered many of 
its spacious dooryards, gardens, and parks. Twenty 
miles south of Des Moines and thirty miles north of 
Chariton, it is connected by branch roads with the 
two great thoroughfares, the C. E. I. & P, and the 
C. B. & Q. railways. The commercial isolation of 
its earlier years, once viewed as a misfortune, yielded 
an ample compensation in its freedom from that 
type of citizens which blight so many of the smaller, 
and corrupt the larger cities of the State. Xot a 
saloon exists in Warren County (at this writing), 
nor is a ^^Govemment permit held by a druggist in 
town or county. It contained at this time five 
churches, Methodist, Presbyterian, United Presby- 
terian, Baptist, and Friends. The Methodist Church 
numbered 323 members. Of these about 300 could 
be located. The house of worship was a new build- 
ing, completed the last year of the pastorate of Eev. 
W. H. Hooker, my immediate predecessor. 

Simpson College, located here, is an institution 
fostered by the Des Moines Conference. Although 
it has had an arduous struggle for financial support, 
it has made a name for thorough teaching and for 
the moral safety of its students. At the time of my 

10 



146 MEMOIES AND SERMONS. 



appointment to Indianola the attendance of students 
at the college was about 250 to 300. It has more 
than doubled at this writing. Students of Simpson 
College returning to their CJjristian homes do not 
carry with them smart inJSdel airs or dissipated 
morals^ but usually better developed Christian char- 
acter and increased moral dignity. The record this 
college has made in fitting men and women for the 
work of foreign missions is, in itself, memorable. 
One is astounded at what has been accomplished with 
such small resources; indeed, I have often wondered 
that men of large means, who want to do great good 
with their money, have for so long overlooked this 
college. 

The Hon. Wm. H. Berry had been for several 
years, and has continued, uninterruptedly, thirty 
years, the superintendent of the Sunday school. To 
say he is a great superintendent is to state only what 
is obvious in any session of the school. Whatever 
this strong and earnest man may achieve in other 
lines and future years, he can hardly do a greater 
work or build him a nobler monument than these 
thirty years of devoted, skillful, and strong superin- 
tendency. 

Rev. A. D. Field, a superannuate member of the 
Rock River Conference, I found here and greatly 
prized him as the assistant Sunday school superin- 
tendent and Bible-class teacher. A man more 
thoroughly imbued with enthusiastic devotion to 



INDIANOLA. 



147 



Sunday school ^ork I have never met. It has been 
stated to me that Bishop Vincent^ distinguished as 
the great Sunday school man of our Church, once 
said that he owed his awakening to this great interest, 
and his inspiration and insight in developing the 
Sunday school work to Brother Fields. Besides these 
officers this school had a noble corps of teachers. 

Upon this interesting field I entered with much 
zest and high hopes, and found it one which, morally, 
is like physical Iowa, abounding in deep, rich soil, 
with a small percentage of waste land. Although 
the morals of the place were exceptionally good and 
the Church attendance large, the prayer and class 
meetings were thinly attended. The record showed, 
too, that few had been added to the Church on pro- 
bation for several years, and I was told a conversion 
had not as yet taken place in the new building. Of 
course there were here, as nearly everywhere, a few 
who harped upon chiefly two strings, their own 
^T^lessed experience,^^ and the ^^spiritual deadness^^ of 
the rest of the members. But as I preached and 
urged the fact of holiness of heart and life, but did 
not wish to trouble any one about his theory, whether 
Wesleyan or Inskipian, they did not prove in any 
large degree a disturbing factor. 

The first winter was very severe in both depth of 
snow and low temperatures. So coldly built was the 
parsonage that we suffered much from cold, and Mrs. 
MiUer suffered special hardship in maintaining fires 



148 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



when I was obliged to be away from home. It was 
in this house Mrs. Hooker, the saintly wife of my 
predecessor, met her death, I was informed, from 
cold contracted by reason of the cold floors of this 
old parsonage. Our only help was in pouring into 
the stoves abundant fuel. An outside view of the 
house, with the smoke rolling from the stove pipe 
extensions of its chimneys, suggested the ready-to- 
start appearance of an old-fashioned steam ferry boat. 
But the discomforts of the parsonage were offset by 
the good qualities of the people. We found so much 
to appreciate in these people that we preached and 
worked with zest and faith for their upbuilding. A 
revival effort the first year of some three weeks special 
services resulted in about twenty or twenty-five con- 
versions as well as evident spiritual improvement and 
encouragement of the membership in general. The 
attendance at the Sunday school services was invari- 
ably good, and the student body from Simpson College 
always constituted an interesting and interested class 
of hearers. The revival effort of our second winter 
was, like that of the first, conducted without aid of 
a special evangelist and, gauged by the number of 
converts, was a marked failure. Only one person 
gave evidence of genuine conversion from a life of 
sin to one of godliness. This was the wife of a 
hotel keeper. She and her husband had been accus- 
tomed to a life of indifference to religion and were 
given to dance and frolic and general pleasure. 
The death of their much idolized child deeply wrought 



INDIANOLA. 



149 



upon the mother and. gave her thoughts a new direc- 
tion, which resulted in a revolution of life and char- 
acter, and a devotion to active Christian duty, which 
evinced that her prayerful struggle at the altar had 
truly been the beginning of a new life. She became 
a valuable member of the Church. 

But the good brethren who had warmly approved 
of our going into these meetings without invoking 
the aid of a professional evangelist now quite cor- 
rectly made up their minds to the opinion that I 
was not a ^^revivalist,^^ but needed the help of a 
specialist in this work. As time brought around the 
season when a third series of meetings could be given 
our attention, they were willing I should secure this 
kind of assistance. And I quite agreed with them, 
although I believed a truly normal state of religious 
life in the Church should afford the conditions for 
the conversion of sinners the year round. This whole 
question is doubtless one of attention. If the value 
and salvation of souls can command the supreme 
attention of preacher and people, the soul-saving work 
will prosper at any time of the year, and at the 
regular devotional services of the Church. But here 
is exactly the difficulty, the urgent demands of busi- 
ness, study, and society so absorb the attention as 
to leave but little time and energy for this supreme 
interest of life, save in the brief interval of the long 
evenings of decaying winter festivities or the lull in 
strenuous business affairs. 

In this third revival season we began our meet- 



150 MBMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



ings with the assistance of a minister of our own 
Conference who had conducted successful revivals at 
a number of smaller Churches. In employing him 
I did not abdicate my responsibility as pastor, but 
gave the management of the special revival services 
into his hands, reserving to myself a general over- 
sight and the preaching of the Sunday morning ser- 
mons. We began with a full house on a Sunday 
evening with every evidence of a general religious 
interest. The evangelist preached well, but in the 
week-night services spent too much time in belabor- 
ing the Church members with "trying to get the 
Church right/^ as evangelists usually say. By the 
end of the first week the attendance had dwindled 
to a very small number, and many of these were evi- 
dently disheartened. But on the morning of the 
second Sunday the usual large congregation was in 
attendance, and I was glad to have all matters in 
my own hands. Feeling the situation extremely deli- 
cate, I prayerfully ventured upon the effort to re- 
trieve the religious interest apparent in the begin- 
ning and was glad the evangelist was present, though 
I knew it to be a delicate matter to be entirely fair 
with the people and at the same time avoid reflect- 
ing upon him. My text was (Matt. 11:16), "But 
whereunto shall I liken this generation? It is like 
unto children sitting in the market places, who call 
unto their fellows and say. We piped unto you and 
ye did not dance; we wailed, and ye did not mourn. 



INDIANOLA. 



161 



For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they 
say he hath a demon. The Son of man came eating 
and drinking, and they say. Behold a gluttonous man 
and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sin- 
ners Not attempting to reproduce the sermon here, 
the substance of it was of suflScient import in the 
account of this revival effort to justify its statement. 

1. Experts in the use of the critical faculty very 
naturally disparage anything with which they can 
find fault; even when their faultfinding dwindles 
into the form of small criticism. 

2. Indulging a disposition to pull down often re- 
sults in a certain blindness to the opportunity to 
construct and build up. 

3. The Jewish leaders, wrapt in self-compla- 
cence and skilled in rabbinical minutia, determined 
to reject the spiritual Kingdom of God and sought 
to justify it by their smart criticism of the dietetic 
habits of John the Baptist, and Christ^s generous 
indifference to social caste. "Whereunto shall I 
liken this generation They have sunken to the 
trivial whimsies of children in the market place; and 
that, too, when their immortal interests are at stake. 

4. Just so, my people, you are starving spirit- 
ually out of respect to your critical faculty, your 
talent for small criticism. 

Make note of this: Two years ago you were 
averse to employing an evangelist to aid me in re- 
vival effort, and our meetings resulted in apparently 



152 MEMOIES AND SEKMONS. 



but small success. Then, one year ago when another 
effort was almost a total failure, you were quite pro- 
nounced in the opinion that I was a failure as a 
revivalist. Now, when I have a helper as much un- 
like myself as one can well imagine, but who has 
had large success at other times and places, you drop 
away on the pretext that his preaching ^^does not 
suit you; he preaches holiness, sanctification, etc.^^ 
^^Very well ! the Bible advocates holiness as quite 
essential to salvation. And John Wesley, concededly 
one of the most apostolic men of modern times, 
preached holiness. He held that a truly regenerated 
man is ^born again,^ that he is a child of God, he is 
sanctified, he is holy and may continue so, but that in 
fact few do continue in that state of heart, and hence 
need to renew their consecration, with a view to 
daily maintaining a consecrated life. It is possible 
some of you might profitably live in daily consecra- 
tion to God. But you object, ^The advocates of holi- 
ness in this country deny spiritual purity in the 
truly regenerated.^ That is true of some, perhaps 
many, but it is not true of the Bible nor of Wesley. 
John Wesley very definitely wrote to one of his 
preachers, the Eev. Thomas Maxfield, that he ^did 
not like^ his preaching ^that a truly regenerated man 
is not sanctified.^ In this we are firmly with Wes- 
ley; and as long as I am responsible for the utter- 
ances of this pulpit, there shall be no preaching here 
of that doctrine which Wesley so wisely condemned. 



INDIAXOLA. 



153 



This our brother, the evangelist, has not vet taught 
here, and will not while I have charge of this meeting 
and this Church. This revival effort will continue 
another week at least, and if you determine to starve 
to death spiritually, out of respect to your critical 
talent, you must bear the responsibility. But if you 
want to go to work in building up your spiritual life 
and the soul-winning work of the Church, now is 
your time 

The evangelist was announced to preach in the 
evening. His manner that afternoon convinced me 
he had intended to launch the very teaching which 
I had pointed out in the morning as unscriptural and 
condemned by Wesley. I thought it was good for- 
tune to our meeting that he had not gone so far be- 
fore that Sunday morning gave me the opportunity 
to intercept his contemplated disparagement of the 
moral quality of regeneration in order to find ground 
for the doctrine of a ^^second distinct work.^^ Accord- 
ing to his statement he felt "much humbled,^' and 
had been on the verge of abandoning our meetings 
and leaving town. But after praying over it he con- 
cluded to stay and do his best to win sinners to 
Christ. 

The church was well filled at night, the evan- 
gelist related his afternoon struggle and victory, and 
went to work in good earnest. He was a bright, 
though eccentric man, of good general intelligence, 
familiar with the Scriptures and apt in their appli- 



154 MEMOIRS AKD SEEMONS. 



cation. Moreover, in the skillful handling of a large 
audience, to move his hearers to decisive action, and 
yet conserve the moral dignity and devout sense of 
the sacred, I have rarely met his equal. 

We were blest also with the best kind of revival 
music, led not by a choir, decorated with no operatic 
airs nor display of technique, no posing nor mouthing 
of soloists. No, none of these diversions! But a 
plain farmer, George Eicher, clear headed, rich voiced, 
warm hearted, well experienced in revivals, led our 
congregations with prompt and good judgment in 
selections, definite articulation in a known tongue, 
with melody, unction, and power to lift and thrill, 
and to blend all hearts and voices with the conscious- 
ness of truly "singing and making melody unto the 
Lord.^^ 

We had. no more trouble with faultfinding. The 
church was crowded night after night. The day meet- 
ings were well attended and very profitable. Directly, 
upon opportunity being given, unconverted people rose 
to ask prayers or kneel at the altar. Soon the altar was 
crowded. Then at the front pews, and eventually here 
and there in the house penitents knelt, surrounded 
by Church members instructing them and praying 
with and for them. Thus the work went on for sev- 
eral weeks, abating not until scores were brought into 
the experience of a new life. Just how many genu- 
ine conversions take place in such a series of meet- 
ings it is, of course, impossible for us to know. The 



INDIANOLA. 



155 



number of professed converts in this instance ranged 
in the neighborhood of one hundred and fifty, and 
though some did not prove faithful the percentage of 
these I think was small. But in addition to the mat- 
ter of individual converts there was such a distinct 
uplift to the faith of the Church that its members 
rose above the old thrall in which they seemed to 
have been held, which bade them not to expect the 
^^con version'^ of sinners; that found expression in 
remarks to the effect that ^^the old way of repentance 
and conversion at the altar seemed out of date; 
^^can't expect that in educated or highly cultured 
people/^ etc., etc. All found that right-heartedness 
would, like the wireless telegraph, catch the current 
of the ever-present Spirit of God, notwithstanding 
any insulation of crudity or culture. When they long 
and pray for rightness of heart; in other words, 
"hunger and thirst after righteousness,^^ "they shall 
be filled.^^ The membership of this Church was more 
than doubled in the five years of my first pastoral 
term at Indianola. 

The General Conference of May, 1888, sitting in 
Omaha, extended the number of consecutive years 
restricting the appointment of pastors to the same 
charge from three to five. Consequently I was ap- 
pointed to Indianola five times consecutively. Hav- 
ing begun to write "The Evolution of Love^^ in the 
autumn of 1886, when at First Church, Des Moines, 
I finished it in the autumn of ^91. The next 



166 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



thing was to find a publisher. Of course, I applied 
first to our Methodist Publishing House in New 
York, but was told by one of the ^^Agents^' before 
the manuscript was submitted that they would re- 
quire a guarantee of one thousand dollars before pub- 
lishing an edition of one thousand copies. As I was 
a novice in this business the ^^guarantee^^ matter sur- 
prised me. Hence I tried another New York house, 
Scribners, and after having my manuscript examined 
by a reviewer they wrote me that while they regarded 
it a work of high merit, it was not of such a character 
as they wished to add to their list of publications. 
Thereupon I submitted it to A. C. McClurg & Co., 
of Chicago. After they had it examined by first a 
literary and then a philosophic expert. General Mc- 
Clurg informed me they were ^^ready to make me a 
proposition.^^ It was substantially this: "We will 
publish an edition of at least one thousand copies, 
and after selling five hundred we will pay you a 
royalty of ten per cent on the list price of one dollar 
and fifty cents for each copy sold thereafter.^^ They 
made no mention of a guarantee. The book appeared 
February 13, 1892, mechanically so well done as to 
be a credit to any publishing house. 

It was not a book to command a rapid or large 
sale and I did not expect this, but I did expect a more 
prompt and ample notice of it from the Methodist 
press. From other sources, however, press notices 
and reviews of it were more favorable than I ex- 



INDIANOLA. 



157 



pected. Eeviews by certain contributors to the press, 
notably those of Drs. W. J. Spaulding, a former 
President of Iowa Weslyan University, and A. E. 
GriflBth, of the Des Moines Conference, were dis- 
criminating, thorough, and highly appreciative. That 
of Dr. James Iverach, of Free Church College, Aber- 
deen, Scotland, published in The TMnker, Vol. VII, 
Page 473, London, 1895, was keen, strong, fair, yet 
commendatory above what I dared expect; especially 
from a European critic of the first rank. What gave 
me greater satisfaction, however, than the praise of 
these eminent reviewers was the evidence I received 
that it cleared many thoughtful minds of their doubts 
and perplexities, was profitable study to able Christian 
thinkers, and in some cases proved a cure to rank un- 
belief. A gentleman in Kansas assured me of one 
who was the President of "The Kansas Society of 
Free Thinkers,^^ who was converted by reading it. A 
letter from the Eev. Dr. Bulgin, a Presbyterian min- 
ister and evangelist, who had just closed a series of 
revival campaigns of nearly four years duration in 
California, informed me that this book ^^has brought 
forty-two lawyers in California to a rich experience 
in God.^^ He stated he had given away many copies 
"in the last seven years and had followed the results/^ 
and could tell me of "scores of souls that have been 
brought out of the fog and mist.^^ Such results 
bring me the consolation that the book is slowly, 
perhaps, but surely accomplishing its intended object. 



158 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



The main adverse criticism of the work, urged by 
capable and candid reviewers, was that it was too 
compact, and for such close reasoning as its themes 
required it needed expansion and ampler illustration. 
Thinking this just and important, I revised it to the 
extent I deemed consistent with the desired limits 
of the volume. This revised edition was published 
by the Methodist Book Concern at New York in 
1907. 

After certain ministers had expressed satisfaction 
with the theistic argument contained in Chapter I 
of this work, and suggested its separate publication, I 
wrote of the matter to the Western Agents of the Book 
Concern, and Dr. J ennings, of that firm, replied that 
it was exactly what he wanted to place in a set of 
"Little Books on Doctrine,'^ which he was planning 
to publish. Accordingly, after some further cor- 
respondence between us, I prepared the manuscript, 
including that chapter, which they published under 
the title, "The Fact of God,'' as one of the "Little 
Books on Doctrine.'' This accounts for the appear- 
ance of that little book. 

In my fifth year at Indianola I received notice 
from the Ecumenical Commission that I had been 
duly chosen a delegate to the Methodist Ecumenical 
Conference to be held in Washington City, from 
October 21st to November 3d, 1891. This confer- 
ence was to embrace representatives from all Christian 
sects bearing the Methodist name or of Wesleyan 



INDIANOLA. 



159 



origin. It had no authority, legislative or executive; 
it was rather a family reunion, wherein each branch 
of the Wesleyan family could report its peculiar con- 
ditions, plans, success, and expectations for advanced 
work. The members of this conference represented 
distinct denominations which have sprung from the 
great religious movement of the eighteenth century, 
termed Methodism, of which John and Charles Wesley 
and George Whitefield were the most distinguished 
leaders:. 

A marked feature of the opening exercises of 
this body was the address of welcome delivered by 
Bishop John P. Hurst. It was remarkable for per- 
tinence and good taste, and his linguistic attainments 
stood him in good stead as he addressed this assem- 
blage of various tongues. His passages addressed to 
certain foreign delegations in their own language 
elicited their enthusiastic applause, which swept the 
entire audience into sympathy with them, in admira- 
tion of his facile aptitude for this noble greeting. 

Unfortunately for me, I was taken ill on the 
second day of the conference with an attack of 
malarial fever, which deprived me of quite half of 
the proceedings, and many interesting incidents of 
this great meeting. However, I recovered in time 
to hear the admirable address of His Excellency, 
President Harrison, when attended by several mem- 
bers of his cabinet and one or two foreign ambassa- 
dors. The foreign delegates, it was said, were greatly 



160 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



impressed by the visit and speech of the President. 
The address was short, but was a model, having the 
qualities which distinguished his oratory; it was ex- 
temporaneous, yet accurate, clear, perspicuous, and 
eminently appropriate; scarcely capable of improve- 
ment by the addition or elision of a word. One of 
the British delegates was quoted as sajdng no such 
thing as the conference calling upon the chief ruler 
could occur in England, and no monarch of his 
country, from the Conqueror to the present (Queen 
Victoria) would have had the ability or courage to 
deliver such an address as that of President Harrison 
before the Ecumenical Conference. 

As I had been assigned the duty of replacing Dr. 
Warren, President of Boston University, who had 
been appointed to preach in Dr. Sunderland^s (Pres- 
byterian) Church, but had been called away, I much 
enjoyed meeting that sturdy representative of the 
Presbyterian pulpit in Washington. The church 
building and the congregation seemed, like him, plain, 
substantial, and strong. At his residence he and his 
excellent wife treated me with a frank, yet dignified 
cordiality. It was easy to understand why President 
Cleveland, distinguished for solidity rather than show 
in his tastes, regularly attended Dr. Sunderland^s 
church while in Washington. 

Des Moines District. — When my fifth year as 
pastor at Indianola ended, September 15, 1892, I was 
appointed presiding elder of the Des Moines Dis- 



DES MOIKES DISTEICT. 161 

trict; and therefore made Des Moines my place of 
residence. We gained in this move the domestic satis- 
faction of living within two blocks of our married 
daughter and her family. As close application to 
study had somewhat impaired my health and strength, 
I felt the need of knocking about more in the open 
air, and thought it wise, in superintending this dis- 
trict, to make considerable use of our excellent road- 
horse, "Jane,^^ which we had owned and used a^ a 
^^family horse'^ for about eight years. We had be- 
come greatly attached to her for her docility, spirit, 
and action as a fine and rapid traveler at the trot, 
to harness, and single-foot, to saddle. Appointments 
within twenty or thirty miles of my home I could 
reach by starting two or three hours before the time 
for Saturday three o^clock quarterly meeting service; 
thus avoiding the need of taking inconveniently early 
morning trains. Jane could handily reel off eight 
or ten miles per hour; and when, owing to a strike 
of railroad employees, trains were tied up, I could 
make my forty and fifty mile drives, reaching each 
appointment on time. And I could hold Sabbath 
services at two or three different charges from five 
to ten miles apart without patronizing Sabbath trains, 
and could return home sometimes several hours earlier 
than if I had to await the scheduled train time. 
Besides, excepting in stormy weather, the drives were 
both healthful and pleasurable. This favorite animal 
became well known throughout the district, and when 
11 



163 MEMOIRS AND SEEMONS. 



in Conference session an attack was made upon me 
for owning a ^^stepper'^ I replied, "Nature made her 
a fast trotter, and she saved me from patronizing 
Sunday trains and carried me to my appointments 
011 time, some one in the audience exclaimed, "That ^s 
so, old Jane can get there The overwhelming vote 
which followed this episode silenced this sort of hyper- 
criticism. 

By the way, the itinerant ministry has been greatly 
indebted for its success to good horses. Often the 
minister's fond attachment to his horse was some- 
thing romantic. With him he had traversed moun- 
tain and plain, waded swamps, swam creeks and 
rivers, buffeted snowdrifts, threaded devious rpads and 
bridle-paths in forest darkness and over trackless 
prairies. When but a lad I almost revered the shadow 
of a Methodist itinerant minister, and had a pro- 
found respect for his horse, and both reverence and 
respect were all the more definite if the horse were 
a good one, and well treated by his master. With 
but little patience could I hear disparagement of 
either ministers or horses, except in individual cases 
of well ascertained naughtiness. A disposition to 
defend the good name of ministers and decent horse- 
men and horses has cost me, sometimes, the approval 
of conventional sentiment, but never robbed me of 
a conscientious sense of indebtedness to these servi- 
tors of my boyhood, manhood, and Master. Indeed, 
I have written many articles for the press intended 



r 



DES MOINES DISTEICT. 163 



to abate the physical and moral abuses to which 
horses are subjected by the carelessness of grooms^ 
the cruelty of drivers, the ignorance of shoers, the 
cupidity of owners, and the degrading associations of 
gamblers. A series of my articles published in 
Wallace's Monthly, Kew York, entitled ''Trying to 
Master the Horse's Foot," elicited from Dr. Coleman, 
a graduate of the Eoyal College of A^eterinary Sur- 
geons, London, and the author of an able work on 
the philosophy and treatment of the horse^s foot, sub- 
stantially this published statement: ^^Having read 
everything published in Europe and America on the 
horse^s foot, I do not hesitate to say that the pithy 
sentences of this writer are like an oasis in a desert 
of sand. But he ought not to content himself with 
being a guideboard for others, but should give us 
an extended work on the subject.^^ As all my articles 
were written over an assumed name, and rather as 
recreations, he did not know I was a minister of the 
gospel and had weightier duties on my hands. 

About fifty years ago certain men of intelligence, 
decency, and Christian character, who were inter- 
ested in the improvement of our domestic animals, 
turned with loathing away from the patrons and 
habitues of the "^^racing turf.^^ They regarded the 
running horse as little else than a gambling machine, 
irretrievably in the hands of gamblers. Loathing 
association with the self-styled ^'gentlemen*^ who 
drink, bet, swear, and live ^^fast^^ generally— immoral- 



164 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



ities which liad stigmatized the very name^ ^^horse- 
man^^ — ^they sought to develop this int^esting crea- 
ture into the useful and noble animal he has become 
through their efforts. This movement was supported 
by many excellent men. Mr. Eobert Bonner, a 
stanch Scotch-Irish Presbyterian, took an active 
interest and invested enormous sums of money in 
this enterprise. Mr. John H. Wallace, also a Pres- 
byterian, and educated for the ministry, spent half 
a lifetime of labor and painstaking research in lay- 
ing that systematic foundation for this reform known 
as The American Trotting Register; and reinforced 
it with the magazine known as Wallace's Monthly, 
published in Xew York. Many others of excellent 
character lent their aid to this enterprise, and the 
outcome has been the development of what is now 
recognized in all civilized countries as the most level- 
headed, courageous, and altogether useful type of 
horse the world has ever known, the American Light- 
Harness Horse.^^ It is true the gambling elements 
have swarmed about the light-harness speed contests 
to such a degree as to well-nigh sink them to the 
level of the ^^running-turf.'^ But horsemen have 
maintained this distinction, namely, the running turf 
is per $e a gamlling institution. But the gambler 
is regarded as but a parasite which infests the light- 
harness contests, but their earnest concern is to get 
rid of him as they would of flies and fleas. It has 
been my privilege to help in this work by written 



DES MOmES DISTEICT. 165 



contributions to various live stock journals and maga- 
zines, especially the Amerioan Live Stock Journal, 
The Spirit of the West, and Wallace's Monthly. 

My experience and unconcealed interest in good 
horses gave me access to men regarding their souPs 
salvation which I could not otherTrise have gained, 
and my opposition to gambling and its associate vices 
they felt bound to respect. Of all kinds of live 
stock I was very fond, especially horses; had been 
brought up to use them — ^my people before me were 
horsemen. They owned and used good horses, and 
I simply followed the bent of my forebears in these 
tastes, including pronounced aversion to the ^^horse- 
jockey^^ and opposition to gambling in every form. 
To keep pace with the literature of agriculture and 
live stock enterprise afforded me an agreeable diver- 
sion for mental relaxation from other and severer 
study. It enabled me to talk with farmers and horse- 
men intelligibly regarding the history, genealogies, 
qualities, adaptations, and achievements of these serv- 
ants of man. At various times I have been called to 
comfort them and their families in afHiction, counsel 
and pray with them at the altar, and conduct their 
funeral solemnities. 

On one occasion I dropped in at the oflBce of a 
livery bam and was soon engaged in ^Tiorse talk^^ 
with several men who sat there. Here were two 
gentlemen, brothers, who owned the establishment. 
Here was Mr. H, a very agreeable farmer and a 



166 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



pillar in one of the Churches^ and a fourth was Mr. 
Y, a violent scoffer, a hater of religion, of Churches 
and ministers; a man who, it was said, was sure to 
insult any one who ventured to speak to him about 
his eternal interests. He was an invalid, nearing the 
grave, and I longed to reach him. After a pleasant 
talk with them about horses for perhaps twenty or 
thirty minutes, I rose to go, when several of them 
said, ^^Do n^t go yet ; we like to hear you talk To 
which I replied: ^^Gentlemen, I thank 5^ou, but be- 
fore I go, let me remind you that while you like to 
have me call and talk about your horse-interests, 
you, excepting Mr. H, never call at my place, the 
church, nor at any time want to hear me talk about 
my business, the salvation of your souls. N"ow, I 
fear you will fritter away your time ^trotting horses 
around the stove' until some day you'll 'get the flag 
in your faces/ Good-day.'' Mr. H. spoke to me at 
various times afterwards, declaring he never saw any- 
thing take hold of men as that parting word; it 
struck to their hearts, and all were silent for several 
minutes, and then quietly dispersed. 

A few weeks later Mr. V, the scoffer, was taken 
very ill, and was confined to his bed at the home 
of his parents, who were members of our Church. 
Of course, I called to see him. He could talk but 
little with any one, and as far as I could learn, no 
one had ventured to speak to him of his salvation. 
After a little conversation with his parents and 



DES MOINES DISTEICT. 167 



friends, among whom was one of the livery men, I 
turned to the sick man and said, in substance : ^^Mr. 
V, I am sorry to find you so very ill, and would 
gladly do something to help you. I will not force 
my prayers upon you, but if it is your wish, I will 
pray with you and for you. I know you can not 
talk much, but all you need to say is yes or no.^^ 
After a moment of silent suspense in the room, he 
seemed to rally his energies and answered distinctly, 
*^Yes/^ Thereupon we knelt and I prayed for him 
and, I trust, with him. After the prayer, I, with- 
out wearying him with further talk, departed, but 
called again at intervals until his death, which en- 
sued within a few days. His inability to converse 
rendered it extremely diflBcult for me to have much 
further communication with him, but his parents, 
who were with him constantly, gathered from him 
such words and signs as comforted them with an 
assurance that he truly repented and died in the 
faith. 

The spiritual life of most charges in this district 
I thought good, as also the finances. These facts 
doubtless gave force to the second yearns marked 
revival work. Although I experienced something 
of hardship, there was more of pleasurable interest 
in the work and abounding gratification from the 
goodly number of conversions, and evident upbuilding 
of the Churches. In the second of these years, the 
editor of the Northwestern Christian Advocate, Dr. 



168 MEMOIRS AND SERMON'S. 



Arthur Edwards, solicited and published reports of 
the ingathering of converts in the districts covered 
by the circulation of that paper. At this time I 
am unable to state what percentage of these districts 
were reported, but I well remember that Gallipolis 
District stood highest, and Des Moines stood second 
with upwards of sixteen hundred souls to her credit. 
Dr. Reese, my predecessor, was a good financier and 
very energetic, and I think much of the large in- 
gathering of the second year was due to his energetic 
instrumentality, the influence of which lapped over 
into the earlier years of my superintendency. 

BESSE. 

On May 16, 1893, after a typhoid illness which 
kept her to her bed about eleven days, our very dearly 
beloved daughter Besse passed into the "rest^^ of 
Grod's saints. She had been in delicate health for 
some weeks, and was slow to yield to the necessity 
of taking her bed, though we learned from her later 
that she regarded it ^^the beginning of the end.^^ 
It was hard for us to accept the doctor's decision that 
she could not recover, although she had told us, be- 
fore the doctors had reached a conclusion, that she 
was going. On the morning of the day of her death 
she directed the nurse to ^^tidy up the room,'' saying, 
^^I expect to go to-day, and the family must be 
called in." Duly warned by Dr. Adams that death 



DES MOmES DISTRICT. 169 



would intervene not later than six o^clock that even- 
ing, Mrs. Miller and I, with the nurse, watched with 
her; and meantime, our son, William B. Miller, 
and our daughter, Mrs. Nourse, and her husband, 
Mr, Clinton L. Nourse, and Miss Mary Gateh, Basse's 
dearest girl friend, gathered about her bed, received 
her last ^^good-bye,'' and awaited the last heart-throb, 
which came at 5.25 in the evening. 

Her calm and courageous greeting of death helped 
us to say in our hearts, ^^The Lord gave and the Lord 
hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord.'' 
Her distinguishing traits were a genial, happy dispo- 
sition, quick and clear perception, fine practical judg- 
ment, and deep moral earnestness. Her Christian 
character was cheerful, though earnest; firm, though 
unobtrusive; rational and practical, without cant or 
shallow sentiment. She had been helpful, not only 
in the household, but very much so in the Church, 
and had a strong and wholesome influence upon many 
young people of Des Moines and Indianola. Without 
aggressiveness she seemed to create a moral atmos- 
phere which was felt and acknowledged by her asso- 
ciates. One of them said, ^'I always found it easy 
to be good when with Besse." Many were the young 
people who gathered to the funeral at our home; 
many the appreciative words of the ministers in prayer 
and consolation ; many, too, the heartening and help- 
ful notes of condolence received from friends near 
and far, yet more consoling was it to remember her 



170 MEMOIES AJfD SEEMONS. 



appropriating St. PauPs words, ^To live is Christ and 
to die is gain/^ 

We bore her body to our family burial place in 
the cemetery at Muscatine, where, with the little 
graves of Grace and Mary, hers shall await our final 
coming. 

As time wore on we had much to be thankful for, 
although the care incident to a fair adjustment of 
pastors to the charges were very weighty and often 
gave me much solicitude. The care of the Churches 
and the best interests of faithful pastors and their 
families cost me more anxiety, I think, than any- 
thing else. When I had done my utmost to secure 
the appointment of what I deemed "the right man 
in the right place,^^ there were yet those among the 
pastors whom I could not satisfy. But there were 
not many of this kind. Even where I had taken 
special pains to do well by a brother minister, and 
in some cases incurred the dislike of the bishop be- 
cause of my persistent effort in this brother's behalf, 
I sometimes found him disposed to censure me for 
not having done more for him. Such cases, however, 
did not wound me so deeply as when a faithful and 
worthy brother went uncomplainingly to his charge 
feeling lie ought to have fared ietter. The scanty 
salaries of many of the pastors, and the difficulty to 
induce the laity, especially if they were farmers, to 
increase them, were perhaps my greatest trials. And 
when asked how I liked the presiding elder's office, I 



DES MOINES DISTEICT. 171 



settled upon this as a stereotyped answer^ ^There is 
one condition upon which I would enjoy being a 
presiding elder^ and that is^ that I were a man of 
such wealth as to be able to give deserved financial 
assistance to the preachers whose families were suf- 
fering the pinch of poverty in this land of plenty/^ 
We may talk and write as much as we please about 
the heroism of the preachers, but after all, the 
supreme heroism of the itinerant ministry is that 
of the preacher^s wife. The old saying that minis- 
ters' children usually or often go to the bad has been 
abundantly refuted, but that so many of them do 
well is marvelous to those who know their provoca- 
tions. Their alienation from the Church, for which 
their parents have endured so much of hardship and 
injustice, is a cause of bitter regret to those parents. 
A presiding elder sees much of this, even if he has 
not experienced it in his own family; and if his 
eyes are not holden by personal ambition, he will 
yearn for the means by which to relieve this class 
of galling hardships. 

The responsibility of fixing the appointments rests 
largely, yes, chiefly, upon the presiding elders, al- 
though the approval of the bishop is essential to give 
official authority to the action. But as the bishop's 
knowledge of the charges and the ministers depends 
mainly on the information and advice of the pre- 
siding elders for his arrangement of the appoint- 
ments, each presiding elder feels he is primarily re- 



172 



MEMOIES AXD SERMONS. 



sponsible for the care and proper adjustment of the 
charges and pastors in his district and, jointly with 
the other superintendents^, for those of the whole Con- 
ference. This is the really heavy and testing work 
of the district superintendent. In whatever else he 
may excel — preaching, finance, administration of the 
Discipline — if he is not strong in this matter of ad- 
justing appointments he must be a failure in that 
oflBce, and much bad work will result to Churches 
and pastors and pastors^ families. The qualifications 
for bearing this burden must certainly include steady- 
burning zeal, good practical judgment, conscientious 
impartiality as between pastors and between Churches, 
and courage to maintain this impartiality, and to 
stand firm against the other district superintend- 
ents and even the bishop when they favor ap- 
pointments which he believes wrong, unfit, or un- 
fair; even at the risk of their displeasure. In a 
word, he needs a clear head, a stout but tender heart, 
and unfailing courage. These observations are made 
as suggested by my own experience and observation 
of the strength and weakness developed in this try- 
ing office. 

Of a good minister in my district, who deserved 
and felt the need of a better charge than those he 
had hitherto been assigned, I was quite clear in my 
conviction that he was just the man for a certain 
station which had a good church and parsonage and 
paid a salary of one thousand dollars; and this was 



DES MOINES DISTEICT. 173 



a good place for him and his family. Of course, I 
recommended his appointment accordingly. But the 
bishop had a man, an old acquaintance of his from 
the East, to whom he wished to give such a charge 
as this well-nigh model little station. His man was 
comparatively unknown to me, I had no prejudice 
against him, and if he were given the place I would 
stand by him. But I had no other place where I could 
put my man without sorely afflicting him and subject- 
ing his delicate wife to special hardship. After stren- 
uous effort, running through several days, to carry my 
point, I was overruled by the bishop. The result was 
disastrous in every visible respect. His man rent 
with discord this hitherto harmonious and prosper- 
ous charge, from the effects of which, after many 
years, it has never entirely recovered. My man, justly 
grieved and disgusted, bore his burden and performed 
industriously his work in the circuit to which he was 
appointed; but both he and his charge, equally con- 
scious of the misfit, toiled and worried through a 
semi-disastrous year. That the bishop meant well, 
I did not question; but that he was arbitrary where 
he ought to have been reasonable, was plainly evi- 
dent. He was an admirable bishop in many re- 
spects, but had been a bishop, I fear, too long; his 
consciousness of authority had become somewhat 
morbid, quite overgrown for the interests of a "small 
affair^^ such as this. Of course, as in many such in- 
stances, greater or less, the presiding elder must stay 



174 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



by the wreck and bear and do what he can to make 
the best of the salvage, while the bishop sails away 
to sunnier seas. 

Let it not be thought I would inveigh against 
the itinerant system or the episcopal office. Far from 
this, I hold the system the best practicable, espe- 
cially since the rule limiting the bishop's power to 
reappoint pastors consecutively to the same charge 
has been abolished; and firmly believe in Methodist 
episcopacy, yet am persuaded this office should be 
protected by statutory limitation from the prelatic 
practice of a ^^life term'' which is in no practical 
sense modified by calling it a ^^life office." 

Bishop Ames once related to me an incident of 
his presiding eldership when, in the cabinet, he sug- 
gested to the presiding bishop the exchange of two 
names in the list of appointments, then about com- 
pleted, thereby to save these two ministers each a 
long and toilsome move by wagon, and yet serve the 
respective charges equally well. But the presiding 
bishop, who was a good penman and scrupulously neat 
with his manuscript, objected that he did not wish to 
mar his paper with the requisite interlining. And the 
two ministers and their families, to preserve the 
neatness of his paper, were obliged to make their 
long and wearisome journeys over the rugged wagon 
roads of a new State. The episcopal self-conscious- 
ness, in this case, had evidently become morbid and 
chronic. 



CHAPTEE VI. 



Des Moines District. 

At the session of the Des Moines Conference, Sep- 
tember, 1898, my sixth year as presiding elder of 
Des Moines District was completed. The presiding 
officer or general superintendent was Bishop John 
H. Vincent, D. D. He had been distinguished prior 
to his election to the episcopal office, in May, 1884, 
as pre-eminentlj^ the ablest organizer and adminis- 
trator of Sunday school work which our Church, or 
perhaps any Church, had produced. Besides, the 
great Chautauqua movement, which developed into 
a nation-wide institution of inestimable educational 
advantage and power, owed its conception and elabora- 
tion to his genius and energy, associated, as I have 
understood, with that devoted and resourceful lay- 
man of Ohio, Mr. Lewis Miller. These achievements 
gave him celebrity throughout the Church and the 
Christian world. 

When in the pastorate he had undoubtedly dis- 
played very marked ability, fidelity, and usefulness. 
When General Grant, at the height of his fame, was 
attending a distinguished gathering of military and 

175 



176 MEMOIRS AND SEEMONS. 



civic celebrities in Chicago, and was to spend a Sab- 
bath in that city, one of the most wealthy and 
fashionable Churches planned and announced that 
the general would attend its Sunday service. But 
this announcement seemed gratuitous and premature, 
for when it reached him he said frankly that he would 
attend divine service at the Church of Dr. Vincent, 
his old pastor when he lived at Galena. While this 
incident evinced the generaFs aversion to his being 
made a popular advertisement for a large Sunday 
morning congregation, and his loyalty to a friend of 
former years, it showed also his confidence in and 
relic^h for the pulpit utterances of a preacher who 
was now pastor of one of the less pretentious Churches 
of the great city. 

Bishop Yincent^s ministrations in our Conference 
were highly prized and profitable, especially to the 
younger ministers. His work in the cabinet, how- 
ever, in fixing the appointments, did not evince that 
insight in his judgment of men which is the qualifica- 
tion par excellence of a great bishop. Indeed, a 
number of our bishops oould be named who, like him, 
far outshone some of their coadjutors in brilliant 
and commanding gifts, but were not up to the meas- 
ure of some of the less distinguished when it came 
to seeing through the traits and weighing the coun- 
sels of the presiding elders. 

Indianola, September, 1898. — As this Confer- 
ence ended my term of six years as presiding elder. 



THE PASTORATE. 



177 



I was assigned the pastoral charge of our Church at 
Indianola. Dr. W. C. Martin had followed me in 
that charge when I had completed a five-year term 
there^ and after three years of faithful and pros- 
perous work he was succeeded by the Eev. J. B. 
Harris, who carried forward the work with marked 
ability and success. From a membership of over 
six hundred when I left it, the Church now num- 
bered nine hundred and eight. Xotable ingather- 
ings had taken place under both of these excellent 
pastors. Indeed, so large had the society and con- 
gregation become that they were greatly straitened 
for room for both Church services and Sunday school. 
They were puzzled, too, to know how to help the 
matter. To divide the Church seemed impracticable, 
as there was no natural nor logical line of cleavage 
in the to^m nor in the membership. The building 
was large and comparatively new, and admirably lo- 
cated; hence, to sell and build elsewhere would be 
to abandon unequaled local advantages without get- 
ting adequate compensation toward a new and larger 
building. 'Sot could they hit upon a plan to enlarge 
satisfactorily the present structure. They had worked 
along under these embarrassments for several years, 
when a brilliant young architect from Des Moines, 
who had been born and reared in Indianola, Mr. 
Proudfoot, paid a visit to his uncle. Senator A. Y. 
Proudfoot, of Indianola, a member of the Official 
Board, and from him learned the quandary which 
12 



178 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



puzzled the Churchy and while there he made a study 
of how to remodel the edifice. Upon returning from 
Church on Sunday evening, he announced to his 
uncle that he had reached a solution of the problem. 
When the plan was announced to members of the 
Official Board and the pastor, Brother Harris, they 
joyfully accepted it and, at a cost of about five thou- 
sand dollars, executed it. The result is the best audi- 
torium in respect of acoustics, seating the audience 
(of 1,500) in full view of the speaker, and affording 
facilities for Sunday school classes, prayer-meetings, 
and social occasions, that I have ever seen in a 
building of its size and cost. Lecturers, preachers, 
and choral artists of national experience remark that 
its acoustics are perfect and that every face in the 
audience is visible from the platform. To Dr. Harris 
was due great credit for carrying through this enter- 
prise, and as to the architect, it was an illustration 
of the inestimable value of genius. With this noble 
edifice and this large and interesting congregation 
I began my second pastoral term at Indianola. 

This enlargement of the church, however, had 
postponed the building of a much needed parsonage. 
Brother Harris and his family had endured the dis- 
comforts of the old parsonage while employing his 
admirable tact to promote sufficient interest in a very 
conservative charge to secure the funds requisite to 
carry through the church improvements. Although 
we deplored the fact that we must move into this 



THE PASTOEATE. 



179 



parsonage, we felt veiy much at home with this 
good people; and the improved facilities for Church 
work gave added zest to our second term. We spent 
four consecutive years here, endeavoring to do the 
work of a minister, preaching, organizing, visiting, 
and forwarding the religious interests of the com- 
munity, the prayer room, class room, leagues, socials, 
and Sunday school. The Woman^s Foreign Mission- 
ary Society, in which my wife had taken an active 
part, and the Epworth League, which I organized 
during our former term here, we found still flourish- 
ing. The Junior League was not doing well, but 
had discouraged about every one who had been put 
in charge of it. This I suspended until such time 
as the cantankerous young fellows who belonged to 
it could see the importance of order and discipline 
and be ashamed of their former misconduct, and until 
I could find some one whose interest in these chil- 
dren was coupled with suJBBcient patience and tact 
to manage them. The scheme worked out well, and 
the troublesome lads and lasses clamored for a re- 
sumption of the Junior meetings. Meantime, Miss 
Anna Silcot, a talented and devout young woman 
of my charge, offered to undertake the leadership, 
and suggested her plan of organization for this branch 
of the work. Giving her leave to select her assistants, 
I had her placed in charge of the Junior League 
with a free hand, and the resumed meetings eoon 
required grading the League into eix classes to carry 



180 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



forward this now interesting and remarkably success- 
ful work. An ^^Intermediate League/^ though with- 
out Disciplinary authorization at the time, I took 
upon me to organize, and it proved a solution of 
various troubles incident to the boys and girls who 
thought they were too old to be classed with Juniors, 
but did not feel quite at home with adult ^^Leaguers/' 
A fortunate selection of lea.ders for this Intermediate 
League resulted in very satisfactory success- 

A union revival meeting which was held in our 
Church combined with us the efforts of the Baptist, 
Presbyterian, United Presbyterian, and Friends 
Churches, under the leadership of the Eev. Dr. Bul- 
gin. He was an evangelist of decided strength and 
tact, a Presbyterian, and had been connected with 
Moody^s revival work in Chicago, and perhaps else- 
where. Although I have no present means of ascer- 
taining how many conversions were counted in this 
meeting, nor how many joined our Church, I can 
safely place the aggregate above one hundred and fifty, 
and the. accessions to our Church at half of the num- 
ber. Later, by a year or two, we held a revival serv- 
ice in which I was assisted by the Eev. G. W. Willis, 
then of the Friends Society, Cleveland, Ohio, in 
which our professed converts numbered one hundred 
and thirty-four. This ingathering drew largely from 
our Sunday school and Leagues, and, I think, proved 
a very permanent accession. The charge, at the close 
of our fourth year, numbered one thousand and 



THE PASTOEATE. 



181 



twenty-five members. In the latter part of our fourth 
year a movement was started to build a new par- 
sonage. Mrs. J. F. Sampson led in a movement 
of certain other devoted women of the Church to 
raise a fund for that purpose, and by Conference 
time had raised fifteen hundred dollars. This an- 
swered for a good start toward actually building the 
much needed parsonage in the following Conference 
year. However, it was not to be a home for us. 
We were moved from Indianola at the end of the 
fourth year of this second term, and were at the 
ensuing Conference session assigned to the pastorate 
of our Church at Denison, the county seat of Craw- 
ford County. 

Denisoi^, September, 1903. — Denison was at 
that time, September 15, 1902, a town of about 3,000 
inhabitants. It is beautifully situated on an oval 
ridge between the east and west branches of the Boyer 
Eiver and, with the narrow valleys which skirt these 
streams, is rimmed in by a coronet of hills, from 
which it affords a lovely view. The general view of 
the little city, however, scarcely equals the beauty 
of a number of its pretty homes. The whole ap- 
pearance of the place is that of general thrift. We 
found here a cordial reception, an excellent parsonage, 
a commodious and well-filled church edifice, and an 
excellent choir; a thrifty, enterprising membership. 
Upon examining the Church records, I perceived, 
from the small list of probationers, that this Church 



182 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



had had no considerable ingathering of converts for 
several years. Business thrift and general worldli- 
ness rendered the Church weak as a soul-winning 
institution. Yet there were here some of the most 
saintly characters I have ever had the privilege to 
become well acquainted with. The pastor who had 
preceded me. Dr. E. M. Holmes, was a minister of 
fine abilities and rare Christian character; faithful, 
diligent, genial, and an exemplary Christian gentle- 
man. Yet there had been no marked religious move- 
ment in the community for many years. The saloon 
interest was strong here, not only as represented in 
the commercial, but in the social life of the place. 
It was extremely difficult to maintain the position 
of our Church on the temperance question, especially 
on prohibition, without wounding many very inter- 
esting, self-respecting and respectable members of 
the Sunday school and congregation, and even com- 
municants. Eevival efforts resulted in gathering in 
but a few, and these were mainly young people of our 
Church, families. Nevertheless our class and prayer- 
meetings seemed earnest and spiritual, and the 
Leagues and Sunday school well organized. The 
financial interests of this Church were more pros- 
perous than the spiritual. There was indeed a cer- 
tain Church pride among the members in maintain- 
ing a good standing in finances, as well as in society. 
The morning congregations were usually large, and 
those of the evening of respectable numbers. Promi- 



THE PASTOEATE. 



183 



nent among our laymen were politicians, lawyers, 
bankers, merchants, real estate dealers, aad business 
men of other lines. While some of these lent social 
consideration to the Church, they contributed little 
apparently to its religious power. One of them said 
to me, ^'I believe in the Church, and in supporting 
it, but I have no religion/^ (He meant the inner 
experience of religious life.) Doubtless this was true 
of most of these men who, for the sake of their 
families and the good name of the town, took pride 
in keeping up the Church, but would favor no move- 
ment against the saloons. 

General Conference, May, 1904. — On the 27th 
of April, 1904, we (Mrs. Miller, her sister, Mrs. 
Shade, and myself) boarded the 1.10 P. M. train at 
Denison for Kansas City, via Omaha and the C. B. 
& Q. 10.45 train, and reached Kansas City about 7 
A. M. next day, and at 1 P. M. took the ^^General 
Conference SpeciaF^ for Los Angeles. We breakfasted 
next moring at Trinidad, Colorado. Here Mrs. Miller 
had her first view of a mountain, and looked with 
much interest upon Fisher's Peak of the Eaton Moun- 
tains near by. But this was to her but the beginning 
of wonders. She had never seen a mountain nor 
an ocean, and greatly enjoyed the snowstorm through 
which we passed at an altitude of 6,000 feet. Thus 
daily, though weary with the monotony of the desert, 
she almost grieved to miss the sight of a striking 
mountain scene. When she looked for the first time 



184 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



upon the Grand Canon in Arizona, she exclaimed, 
"^^It all here ; all we Ve read and heard are not 
equal to the real canon/^ This first view was the 
most fortunate we had of it, owing to the brilliance 
of atmosphere and sunlight at the time. One may 
imagine a chasm 200 miles long, 6,000 feet from 
rim to river, 1,042 feet from river to sea level, 
9-13 milee wide, and peopled with mountains eroded 
and fluted by attrition of the suns and storms of 
centuries. 

An accident by which trains were interrupted on 
the branch road from Williams to the Canon made 
our stay at the latter place unpleasantly long. Our 
train arrived on Saturday about 5 P. M., expecting 
to return to the main line at Williams on Monday 
morning; but a break in the branch road and the 
delay caused by the exhaustion of water in the engines 
of some eighteen or twenty trains, lying at the Canon, 
which could be remedied only when repairs on the 
branch admitted of water trains from Williams to 
replenish the boilers, tenders, and tanks of our help- 
less trains, detained us until Tuesday afternoon. 
Meantime, provisions were growing scarce and dear 
at the hotels. Besides, the altitude of the place, about 
7,000 feet above sea level, was telling seriously upon 
persons of delicate health on our trains, some of 
whom were obliged to use the utmost care to avoid 
profuse bleeding at nose and mouth. 

A considerable number of General Conference 



THE PASTOEATE. 



185 



delegates were on these trains. Indeed^ delegates 
and members of their families^ it was said, quite made 
up the lists of passengers on several of them. x\s the 
Conference was to open for business on Monday 
morning, some of our number were, I think^ a trifle 
restive by the time we pulled out from the Grand 
Canon, at 1 P. M. of Tuesday, May 3d. Dr. Buck- 
ley, who was with us, felt, I imagine, like General 
Sheridan at Winchester, knowing ^^the battle was on 
once more'^ and Buckley hundreds of miles away ! 

At San Bernardino, while our train halt-ed for 
perhaps thirty minutes, quite a company of young 
people met us at the station platform or boarded 
our train with baskets of oranges and flowers as a 
typical and generous welcome to California. Al- 
though we had often enjoyed California fruits from 
our home markets, the first taste of these tree-ripened 
oranges at San Bernardino convinced us we had 
never before known the luscious merits of an honest 
orange. Beautiful San Bernardino, lovely gem set 
amid its magnificent mountains, won the admiration 
of our eyes, as did the music of its name our ears. 

Wednesday evening found us in Los Angeles. At 
the station we passed between ranks of welcomers, 
who showered our way from train into station house 
with roses. Descriptions of the charms of California's 
foliage and flowers, scenery and climate are far from 
novel or few. We were, like hundreds of others, de- 
lighted with her places of scenic, historic, and classic 



186 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



interest. The trip to Catalina Island, with its rolling 
little steamer and puking passengers, its flying fish, 
uprearing sharks, the obliging whale that appeared 
to our entertainment, and the glass bottom boats that 
gave us a view of the Marine Gardens; the ascent of 
mountains, the views of vast orange groves, and hear- 
ing the eloquence of Californians, with ^^climate^^ for 
exordium, argument, and peroration, — all these and 
much more we saw and heard, but wherefore tax the 
reader with what the railroad companies and land 
agents have printed and distributed in such profu- 
sion? Did I like California? 0, yes! Would I like 
to make it my home ? No ! Wherefore ? Too special, 
too peculiar, a little world of its own kind. One 
wearies of the sense of isolation; he must journey 
across desert or ocean to regain the normal world. 
This feeling of isolation kept a couplet from an old 
hymn drumming in my head, ^Tjo ! on a narrow neck 
of land, ^Twixt two unbound seas I stand.^^ 

The General Conference had been duly opened 
at the appointed time, notwithstanding the absence 
of Dr. Buckley and myself ; and — others. What were 
the misgivings of the Conference because of our 
absence, no one ventured to tell me, but the clapping 
of hands when we answered to our names at roll 
call Thursday seemed a confession of relief. As the 
session proceeded through four weeks, I could esti- 
mate how vast the chasm Dr. Buckley^s absence would 
have made had. he failed to arrive; but equally well 



THE PASTOEATE. 



187 



I learned from the bishops of how little consequence 
was my presence, as they granted me the floor but 
two or three times during the entire session. 

The seamy side of ecclesiastical affairs is not a 
pleasant thing to write or read about, hence is avoided 
as far as consistent in these pages. The sunny, 
social, and happy spiritual side of Methodism has 
ever proved its winning side. But the seamy side, 
though uncomely and often repelling, must always 
be with us as long as human nature is the stuff of 
which divine grace must make up the ultimately per- 
fect Church. As long as his foot is this side of the 
grave, no man can say, in strict truth, ^^I am saved.^^ 
But the lowliest sinner who prayerfully clings to 
the Savior of souls, or advances to the experience 
of a changed heart, or is engaged on the firing line 
of mighty endeavor for the King's cause, or in 
stand-up fight with his own refined selfishness in 
social, business, or Church life, can always say, I 
am ''of such as are being saved/' So also the Church 
sincerely devoted to spreading the gospel of redemp- 
tion from sin, though weighted with weak, ignorant, 
conceited, deceitful, corrupt, and hypocritical mem- 
bers, will ultimately win in the long and stubborn 
battle of self-conquest. 

One of the most heated discussions of the ses- 
sion arose from accusations against some of the 
universities and Biblical schools under Methodist 
patronage, to the effect that they were in their teach- 



188 MEMOIRS AND SEEMONS. 



ing falling in with destmotive criticism of the Scrip- 
tures under guise of Higher Criticism. This dis- 
cussion was almost exclusively in the Committee on 
Education. So sharp^ indeed^ was the contention that 
some severe words were said^ which led to unfortu- 
nate newspaper reports and unpleasant explanations 
in the Conference. Yet some of the speeches were 
exceedingly brilliant and strongs especially that of 
Dr. Terry. As I happened to be chairman of the 
sub-committee to which this matter was referred, we 
felt a degree of satisfaction in finally being able to 
bring in a report which was adopted by the main 
committee as its report to the Conference, and then 
adopted by the Conference without amendment or 
division. The complainants had failed to make good 
their accusations against the schools. 

One of the surprises of this Conference was the 
report of the Committee on Episcopacy, recom- 
mending the retirement of five bishops — Andrews, 
Foss, Walden, Mallalieu, and Vincent. Bishop Mer- 
rill had, earlier in the session, resigned his office in 
a somewhat lengthy but well-tempered and well- 
worded paper, asking permission to retire. Those 
whose retirement the committee recommended ranged 
from seventy to over eighty years of age, and yet 
were unwilling to retire, but felt aggrieved when the 
report was made, and especially when it was adopted 
by the Conference. Not only were many, including 
myself, surprised at this sweeping report, but even 



THE PASTOEATE. 



189 



more surprised at the resentful temper evinced by 
some of these bishops. Such undignified exhibitions 
as these would be avoided if the term of office were 
limited by statute. 

A memorial from the Des Moines Annual Con- 
ference to this General Conference, asking that some 
action be taken in the latter body by which the term 
of service in the episcopal ofiice would be limited to 
eight or twelve years, was offered and, according to 
rule, referred to the Conmiittee on Episcopacy. In 
that committee it was referred to a sub-committee, 
and that body reported against taking any action on 
the subject. Thus it was strangled without discus- 
sion, and thus a practice which has nothing but past 
assumption, without law, logic, or gospel warrant, is 
perpetuated. 

The election of general officers of the Church at 
this Conference was rather more than usually a 
matter of leading interest. As six bishops had been 
retired, an equal number presumably, if not more, 
would be elected; and as this would probably make 
vacancies in secretaryships or editorial chairs, the 
Church politician was alert and active. The episode 
concerning Dr. Day^s election and declinature, etc., 
was a rather discreditable affair all around. Although 
it was disposed of as smoothly and fortunately as 
seemed possible, the moral effect was something like 
a bad taste left in one^s mouth by a dose of medicine. 

One morning when entering the Conference room. 



190 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



before the opening of the session^ I was greeted by 
Dr. S.^ whom I had known for many years as a 
remarkably clean and noble man. He said, ^^1 
mad this morning.^' ''Mad? How's thatT ''Yes, 
just religiously mad.'' "Well^ you know there is one 
more bishop to elect, and in the last balloting Dr. 

had the highest number of votes of any not 

elected, and now some of the bishops are trying to 
prevent his election, in the interest of a certain other 
candidate whom they are boosting for the place; and 
that makes me mad." "Well, that would be a great 
mistake," I said; "besides, it is not a decent thing 
for the bishops to electioneer against any brother. 
Let's defeat them. jSTow, you are an Eastern man; 
you go to the leading men of the Eastern delegations, 
and I '11 see the Western men. All that is necessary 
is to give them the facts." There were several sharp 
and funny incidents to the affair, but when the bal- 
lots of that morning were counted, our man was 
elected. Perhaps I gained no friends by that move, 
but as the years have gone by I have rejoiced when 
thinking of that victory and its fruits. 

When the General Conference had adjourned sine 
die, we spent a few days in sightseeing, spending a 
day and night at Santa Barbara., visiting the old 
Catholic mission where Eomona was married; then 
a day and night at the famous Hotel Del Monte, at 
Monterey, and several days, including the Sabbath, 
at San Francisco, visiting places of special interest in 



THE PASTOEATE. 



191 



and about that city^ including a trip to Palo Alto, 
where we visited the Stanford, Jr., University and 
the wonderful memorial church there. We had 
thought of taking the ocean trip to Portland, Oregon, 
and returning by the Oregon Short Line Eailway 
to Ogden and Salt Lake City, but owing to our 
limited time we omitted this and took the Southern 
Pacific to the latter place, where we spent one day 
and were entertained and shown the city by our 
old friends of the Des Moines Conference, Eev. and 
Mrs. M. D. Helmic. We departed in the evening 
by the Denver and Eio Grande Eailway to Colorado 
Springs, where we spent a night and a day. Owing 
to a misunderstanding as to the time of starting, we 
missed the ascent of Pikers Peak, but put in the day 
visiting the "^^Garden of the Gods^^ and other inter- 
esting places thereabout. Thence we betook us to 
Denver, where we arrived Saturday night, attending 
Church on the Sabbath, and on Monday visited, 
among other features of that city, the Denver Uni- 
versity, where I had a very pleasant hour or two 
with Dr. Buchtel, learning much from him of that 
institution, the city, and State. Tuesday we made 
the "Georgetown Loop,'^ and on Tuesday evening 
took the train for our home at Denison, Iowa, where 
we arrived on Wednesday evening, June 15th. Here 
we were met by thoughtful parishioners and driven 
to the home of Bro. Henry Clay Laub, where a de- 
lightful welcome and delicious supper awaited us. 



192 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



During the three years of our term here we 
formed a goodly number of interesting and pleasant 
acquaintances and found, as in other places, those 
who were trustworthy, genuine, and earnest in both 
Christian character and personal friendship. It was 
in the last winter of our residence in Denison that 
my half-sister, Miss Julia Ann Arnold, who had her 
home with us, passed away at 5.30 P. M., February 
15, 1905, at the age of eighty-eight years, lacking 
fifteen days. The deep snows then prevalent ren- 
dered the interment in the rural family burial ground 
in Johnson County impracticable. Accordingly the 
funeral service was conducted in the parsonage by 
the pastors of the Presbyterian and Baptist Churches, 
and the burial in the cemetery at Denison. 

Many efforts had been put forth by the Protestant 
Churches, singly and in union meetings, all tending 
to promote unity of spirit among them, and in a 
measure securing accessions to their membership, but 
in no instance during our stay in Denison did there 
appear a deep or extensive spiritual awakening or 
moral reformation. The pastors of other Churches 
grew discouraged and changed to other fields of 
labor; insomuch that my short stay of three years 
witnessed from one to three changes of pastors in 
each of these Churches. In comparing notes with 
these pastors, I found the conditions that were un- 
favorable to genuine religious work similar and prev- 



THE PASTOEATE. 



193 



alent in all — the dominance of worldly greed and 
low morals. 

AsBURY Church, Des Moines, September, 
1905. — At the ensuing session of the Des Moines An- 
nual Conference, held at Osceola, I was appointed 
pastor of Asbury Church, Des Moines, a small, weak, 
and struggling Church. Of our self-supporting city 
Churches in Des Moines there were seven. Among 
these Asbury would take about fifth rank, consider- 
ing strength in numbers, wealth, social influence, and 
outlook for prosperity, present and future. My 
appointment to this place was looked upon by some, 
I think, as intended to shelve me so far as good 
appointments in the future were concerned. Some, 
who regarded it as a degradation, urged me to quit 
the Methodist Church. Others expressed their sur- 
prise and queried how such things could be prac- 
ticed by presiding elders and bishops. Some mem- 
bers of the Conference regarded it as an undeserved 
thrust. Some of them asked me how I felt about it. 
''Well,'' I said, ''I feel a little as though I had been 
down the Jericho road, but considering the differ- 
ence between my estimate and the official weighing 
of my claims, I could quote a farmer who said of 
his hogs, 'They did n't weigh as much as I expected 
they would, and I did n't expect they would.' " How- 
ever, we did not grieve, but moved and settled as 
promptly as we could, met a cordial reception by the 

13 



194 MEMOIES AND SEEMOKS. 



Asbury people, and took hold of the work with as 
much zest and determination as we had done at 
First Church twenty-one years before. The fact is, 
meeting and getting well acquainted with the Asbury 
folk raised our estimation of the charge, and the 
longer we were with them, the more attached to 
them we became. 

In my pastoral visiting I found many very in- 
teresting families and a spirit of hopefulness among 
them generally. The church edifice, a brick struc- 
ture, needed renovation very much, as also repairs. 
But there is one great disadvantage from which that 
Church suffered and continues to suffer, namely, the 
proximity of the street railway, along which five 
lines roll their roaring and wailing cars. At an 
average of about every ten minutes, this terrible 
noise and vibration disturb the services. The hope 
that the railway company would see it to their in- 
terests to change their road from Sixteenth to Eight- 
eenth Street has lengthened the endurance of this 
good people to put up with this very injurious and 
annoying situation. In other respects the church is 
well located at East Sixteenth Street and Capital 
Avenue, but if the trolley line persists, it were far 
better to build a new church elsewhere, if they were 
able. 

The membership of this Church numbered 237 
names on the record. Many of these, however, had re- 
moved, without letters or record, to other places or 



THE PASTOEATE. 



196 



other parts of the city, or *^^the other side of J ordan/^ 
Persistent pastoral visiting seemed essential to round 
up and count the numbers actually within reach. The 
Sunday school was well organized^ with Brothers 
Proudfoot and Lane as superintendents. The music 
was good and well conducted in both Church services 
and Sunday school by Mr. and Mrs. Thomas C. Hop- 
kins; the latter of whom was both organist and Bible 
class teacher, and had been one of the most reliable and 
zealous workers in this Church for many years. Her 
father, Mr. C. C. Chester, an expert violinist and 
music teacher, was leader of the orchestra. In fact, 
Asbury Church had a name for excellent music. 
Mr. Chester, who was a rich basso, and Mr. John 
Gibson, a fine baritone, with the Hopkins Brothers, 
excellent tenors, could upon occasion make up a 
quartet rarely equaled by amateurs; and our chorus 
choir contained quite a number of good voices. But 
with these advantages even it seemed quite impossible 
to gather a congregation there large enough to fill 
the church. My predecessor was a fine preacher, yet 
I was told his audiences were even smaller than those 
which I had occasion to regret. 

In March of my first year at Asbury we held a 
series of revival services continuing twenty days, with 
the Eev. Martin Armstrong, D. D., of Kansas, as 
evangelist. Although the weather was much against 
us, we met with marked success. Over 140 con- 
versions were recorded, most of whom united with 



196 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



our Church. The old members were revived and 
much encouraged^ and the ingathering enlarged our 
young people^s meetings. Two important mistakes 
were made in this revival: First, in some instances 
there was undue urgency used to get penitents to 
profess a change of heart; secondly, my intention to 
form an Intermediate League or class for special in- 
struction and religious exercise of young converts I 
permitted to be waived aside in deference to the 
wishes of the Epworth League, the members of which 
ardently desired them to become members of the 
League. The result of the first mistake was disap- 
pointment and discouragement to some sincere peni- 
tents and but half-hearted devotement of others to 
their religious duties, resulting in their dropping 
away to their old life. The effect of the second mis- 
take was that the young converts were embarrassed, 
overawed, or in a measure overlooked in the too 
mature and rather general order of the League serv- 
ices. They needed more special, simple, and more 
individually adapted instruction and religious exer- 
cise. Hence many of them lost interest in the 
League and ceased regular attendance at its meetings. 
Of course I conducted Young Converts^ Meetings^^ 
for special instruction during their probationary 
term, but this was interfered with in a measure 
by the claims of the League. These tendencies, so 
far as affecting the younger girls, were somewhat 
checked or remedied by Mrs. Miller's organizing the 



THE PASTOEATE. 



197 



^'Queen Esther^^ and ^^Standard Bearer^' societies, 
giving them a spiritual and educational as well as 
missionary character. 

Upon the whole, Asbury seemed to take new life 
and hope, although severely handicapped by the 
dingy and generally unsatisfactory condition of the 
building, and the well-nigh intolerable annoyance of 
the trolley cars. These disadvantages furnished con- 
venient weapons to the proselyting sect whose min- 
isters seemed to think they did God service when 
despoiling us of our young people, whether proba- 
tionary or confirmed. 

There was but little wealth represented by the 
members of Asbury Church. Besides three or four 
families representing considerable means, the rest 
were generally wage-earners or on salaries ranging 
from those of street-car motormen and conductors 
to clerks, engineers, miners, carpenters, school- 
teachers, bookkeepers, accountants, physicians, etc., 
but not a lawyer, banker, nor capitalist. Yet we 
had a goodly representation of refinement and in- 
telligence as well as true piety, and of that heroic 
stuflE which had stood true to their beloved Church 
through all its losses and its trials by hardships, dis- 
advantages and subtle foes. As I had never min- 
istered to a Church in which I did not find some 
of God's saintly and true lovers, so here in Asbury 
I found some as choice characters as I had ever met; 
some whose Sunday morning greeting was an inspi- 



198 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



ration and whose daily life was a tower of strength 
to the Church they loved. 

It is not needful to trace consecutively my term 
of three years in this charge. Besides the pastor's 
residence and his salary of $1,000 annually, they 
paid to the support of presiding elder and bishops 
$227; to Evangelists Armstrong and Willis and the 
Chapman's Union meetings a sum in the neighbor- 
hood of $500 ; for missionary and other benevolences, 
$1,111, and for old debts, renovating, painting, and 
repairing the church and parsonage, $889, besides 
handsome gifts at various times, which were in the 
list of uncounted benevolences. If the appointing 
power meant to shelve me when appointing me to 
Asbury Church, it seems the Lord was not exactly 
of the same mind, as He evidently continued to 
acknowledge us here as co-workers with Himself. 
The large number of conversions, the number and 
character of the people of other Churches and com- 
munities who, though with no intention to join As- 
bury, nevertheless attended frequently our services, 
the recognition which this little Church held as a 
religious and social factor, the pastoral work per- 
formed — ranging from four hundred to six hundred 
pastoral visits annually — the regular lecturing and 
teaching at the Deaconess Training School, besides 
occasional lectures and sermons at other places, and 
Mrs. Miller's organization of religious work among 
the young people make up a record of which I 



THE PASTOEATE. 



199 



would not have been ashamed in our best days of 
body and brain. My health and strength would have 
justified my continuance in the effective work longer, 
but the invalidism of the two other members of our 
household rendered it prudent that I should ask the 
superannuate relation at the end of our third year 
at Asbury and the fiftieth year of my regular min- 
istry. 

My last service as a regular itinerant minister 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church was, at the re- 
quest of those who arranged the Conference pro- 
gram, to deliver a "Semi-centennial Sermon^^ at the 
session of the Des Moines Conference at Clarinda, 
September 10, 1908. 

At the same Conference session I asked, through 
my district superintendent, Eev. G. W. L. Browne, 
and was granted a place on the list of superannuated 
ministers. To my great surprise, the Eev. W. H. 
Shipman rose and, addressing me in a singularly 
well-worded speech, presented me, in behalf of the 
brethren in the Conference, $50 in gold as a token 
of personal regard. I deem it due the Conference 
and Brother Shipman, as well as gratifying to my- 
self, to preserve that address, more precious than 
gold, in these pages. 



200 MEMOIES A^^D SEEMOIs^S. 



EEV. W. H. SHIPMAN^S ADDEESS. 

^^Dr. Miller : It is the wish of your brethren that 
some expression should be made to you of their 
confidence and affection. It would be easy to in- 
dulge in words of eloquent flattery concerning the 
gifts of mind and heart with which Grod has en- 
dowed you^ but such words, we know, would fall 
unpleasantly upon your ear, for you would instantly 
detect any taint of insincerity or exaggeration. Gold 
is the measure of commercial values, and the metal 
must ring true or it is worthless. Gold is also the 
emblem of heavenly values, for it is written of that 
city toward which we are all journeying that the 
streets of it are pure gold, as it were transparent 
glass. So every word now must ring true, every 
word must be golden. 

^'You have worked in the pastorate of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church for fifty years. For about 
half that time you have walked in and out among 
us, and we have seen your work. We frankly con- 
fess that we can not fitly judge nor fitly tell the 
value of that work. But we can truthfully say that 
we do deeply value it, and we do deeply appreciate 
it, for it has been to us a burning and a shining light. 
You seem to us to be entering that country where 
there is the singing of birds, where the voice of 
the turtle is heard in the land. We hope that for 
years we may see you live there. We hope the living 



THE PASTOEATE. 



201 



ones will walk with you and daily whisper in your 
ear sweet messages of love and hope, and that there 
will be singing in your heart quenchless songs of 
faith. We hope that with firm step you will walk 
up those shining hills clear to the gates of light till 
they shall open and receive you into the presence 
of our King. And we shall pray that our King 
Himself shall, all the way, shine into your heart 
^the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in 
the face of Jesus Christ.^ 

^Termit me to give you the warm handclasp of 
brotherly love which each of your brethren now wishes 
to give you; and permit me to hand you this small 
sum of gold, in no sense, we trust, the measure to 
you of the value of this moment — only a golden 
emblem of the love of your brethren of this Con- 
ference. Possibly you may be able to put it, or 
part of it, into some enduring, useful form that in 
future years will bring to your mind beautiful 
memories of your brethren in the Des Moines Con- 
ference. 

^^And may the peace of God which passeth all 
understanding keep your heart and mind through 
Jesus Christ.^^ 

In response to this presentation I simply said in 
substance : 

^^I scarcely think it would be modest for me to 
attempt a reply to the address you have just heard. 
This unexpected turn in affairs of course affects 



202 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



me deeply. I will not attempt to interpret to you 
my feelings. This presentation honors me more — 
far more — than I deserve — far more ! I had simply 
believed something worth while had been done in 
my fifty years of effort and trial — about one-half of 
that time among you. I go out^ like Abraham, ^not 
knowing whither he went/ but do not distrust the 
pro'vidence of God. I have been walking that way 
ever since I gave myself to the ministry of our 
Church; and whatever there is before me, I believe 
I shall have a confident understanding with my 
Lord and Master.^^ 

Thus closed a career upon which I had entered 
with much hesitancy and many disadvantages. A 
clear sense of duty was my main source of strength. 
Neither taste, ease, position, nor wealth lent re- 
inforcement in thus crusade of duty. Whatever outer 
alleviations at any time smoothed my way, the solemn 
tread of my inner pilgrimage was under the banner 
inscribed, ^^Woe is unto me if I preach not the 
gospel.^^ Dominant in me was the taste for farm- 
ing and rural life. Equally pronounced was my 
aversion to public attention — have never, I think, 
risen to speak without embarrassment — both these 
tastes had to be given up. My debt to Divine Grace 
was such that I felt that all I could do and all that 
I could endure were but small acknowledgment of 



THE PASTOEATE. 



203 



the obligation. Thus I came to regard all I might 
give up for duty's sake could not be sacrifice, but a 
merciful privilege; thence came the athletic joy of 
duty. 

As much of my education has come by private 
study, it has been like that of all so-called ^^self- 
made^' men, fragmentary. Although evincing some 
of the defects, it has gained, perhaps, some of the 
strong points of self-education. The honorary titles 
attached to my name have come, in each case, as a 
surprise to me, and doubtless by kindness of friends. 
That of Master of Arts was the gift of Iowa Wes- 
leyan University. The others, D. D. and LL. D., 
were conferred by the Iowa State University. 
Would I like to live my ministerial life again ? No, 
and Yes. To again go through its blunders, faults, 
and hardships, No ! With the advantage gained by 
past experience and the improved facilities of these 
days, Yes! The advantage of intellectual gains 
would not be the chief motive in this choice, but 
the one great truth taught in the Bible and evolved 
by experience as the dominating trait of life; the 
all-commanding viewpoint for thought and stand- 
point for work, the incomparably supreme love for 
God, and mutual love for our neighbor. Substan- 
tially, I reiterate here what I said on a former 
occasion: From this high point of view I can see 
my mistakes and regret them, my weaknesses and 



204 MEMOIRS AND SERMONS. 



blush for them^ my vanities and despise them, my 
sins and abhor them. The thought of God thrills 
me with delight. My greatest solicitude for all 
others is that they shall experience a genuine love 
for God, and find it the supreme motive in all they 
are and do and endure. 



Sermons. 



THE KINGDOM OP CHEIST. 

My Kingdom is not of this world, — John 18 : 36. 

To REFUTE the charge of treason to the Eoman Em- 
pire, yet hold His imperial claim to a universal realm, 
Christ gave this brief, serene, majestic answer to 
Pontius Pilate. The latter point, Christ^s Kingdom, 
will be our present theme. Let us discriminate the 
Elements, Powers, and evident Destiny of this King- 
dom. 

I. Elements. — Actions which we put forth 
produce effects of two distinct classes, external and 
internal; in other words, objective and subjective. 
If you practice lifting weights or swinging clubs, 
the external effect is the moving of these clubs or 
weights through the air. The internal effect is in- 
creased strength in your muscles. When a pupil 
works a problem on the blackboard the external 
effect is an expression on the board of the operations 
in his mind. The internal effect is the cultivation 
of his reasoning powers. If I give a dollar to a 
beggar, the external effect is to relieve in a measure 
the beggar's wants. The internal effect is the culti- 

205 



206 



MEMOIRS ANB SEEMONS. 



vation of benevolence in me. Were I to steal, the 
external or objective effect would be to deprive my 
victim of his property. The internal or subjective 
effect would be to stain my soul with the guilt of 
theft. If I purposely kill a man the external effect 
will be my victim's deaths his family's loss of their 
guardian, and the State's loss of a citizen. The in- 
ternal effect would be to blacken my character with 
the guilt of murder. 

To regulate the actions of mankind mitli respect 
to their external effects is the object of civil govern- 
ment. The reality and importance of these external 
effects give rise and continuance to all human nation- 
alities. Christ termed this kind of government "^"^the 
kingdoms of this world/' and said to Pilate, "If 
My Kingdom were of this world then would My 
servants fight that I should not be delivered to the 
Jews, but now it is not from hence." "Art Thou 
a King, then?" queried Pilate. Jesus answered: 
^^Thou sayest that I am a King. To this end have 
I beeu born, and to this end am I c*ome into the 
world, that I should bear witness unto the truth." 

Over our actions with respect to their internal 
effects Christ claims kingship. Over this realm civil 
government has neither power nor authority. These 
inner effects upon the soul He seeks to regulate by 
""TDearing witness to the truth" at the bar of human 
reason and conscience, and asserting its authority 
over the thoughts and intents of the human heart 



SEEMOXS. 



207 



These thoughts cherished and these intents formed 
in the heart give their color or quality to the inner 
effects which constitute the character. His is the 
I'ingdom of character. 

One mdij wish or plan theft, murder, treason, 
but not until he perform an act giving objective 
effect to his wicked plan can the civil government 
treat him as other than an innocent, law-abiding 
citizen. Yet his wishing, planning, purposing these 
crimes make him consciously guilty of their turpi- 
tude ; in fact, make him a thief, murderer, or traitor 
in character. Did he actually commit these crimes 
the State would arrest and punish him. But al- 
though he thus satisfy the demands of the State by 
suffering its penalties of imprisonment or death, that 
fact does not, can not wipe the guilt of these crimes 
from his soul; can not renovate the character. This 
internal result to his character remains notwith- 
standing every satisfaction he may render the State. 
This only Christ can remit or punish. 

Over this internal or subjective realm Christ holds 
dominion, bearing constant witness to the demands 
of truth. And when, before Pilate, He was accused 
of treason against the Eoman emperor. He brushed 
aside every vestige of this accusation with this con- 
cise but momentous reply, "My Kingdom is not of 
this world.^^ Virtually He said, My Kingdom does 
not pertain to the external results, but to the motives 
of men^s actions; is not a political, but a spiritual 



208 MEMOIES AXD SEEMOXS. 



realm or moral empire. And when the enacted reality 
and perpetuity of character are compared with the 
fleeting nature of external things^ the vastly greater 
substance and meaning of Christ^s Kingdom surpass 
all others. 

In the conception of a kingdom we recognize, 
first, the territonj or public domain; s^condlj', the 
inhabitants of that territory : thirdly, the Jaws which 
regulate the affairs of these inhabitant-s ; and fourthly, 
the government which makes, defines, and executes 
these laws. 

1. The Public Domain of Christ's Kingdom is 
the Universe. It sweeps beyond the last line which 
one may imagine bounds the material worlds. Xo 
battlements tower upon the frontiers of space to 
mark the limits of this realm. If on the wings of a 
seraph one could voyage to all eternity he might 
never find a territorial boundary to Jehovah^s King- 
dom. This earth, however great or small a province in 
this vast reahn, is a well-designated part of Christ's 
empire. It has been visited by His ambassadors and 
Himself, urging with mighty reasonings and infinite 
incentives — even with tears and blood — His rightful 
claims. Xo part of it is exempt from His supreme 
sovereignty : 

* ^ If I take the wings of the morning 
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 
Even there shall Thy hand lead me, 
And Thy right hand shall hold me.'' 



SEEMOIsS. 



ao9 



2. The Citizens or inhabitants of this Kingdom 
include all persons who inhabit the universe. In 
whatever form of personal appearance, in whatever 
capacity of personal activities, whether of angelic 
hosts, powers, and principalities, moving in the im- 
mediate presence of God, or fleet and far executing 
His will; all members of the human race, from the 
first to the present, or ever shall be; all who may 
have inhabited any or every planet; spectral beings 
flitting in the ether or shades and demons of per- 
dition — all are citizens or subjects of this vast em- 
pire. 

3. Tlie Laws according to which the character- 
forming acts and interests of these peoples are regu- 
lated are but the order which the action of God takes 
in projecting the nature of finite persons. To the 
end that one^s self-determinations may have a re- 
liable and steadfast basis upon which to rise and dis- 
criminate his responsibilities and base his hopes and 
aspirations of future destiny, this order is maintained 
practically invariable. Because of this invariable 
order of God^s activities in projecting and continu- 
ing the nature of the world, both personal and ma- 
terial, it has been termed "^^Xatural Law.^^ This 
unvaried system of divine action is intelligible, im- 
partial, and beneficent because it is a projectment 
of the divine nature. Although, owing to the world- 
wide abuse of divine law, Jehovah, as the Christ, 
visited our earth with a special message; it was to 

i4 



210 MEMOIES AXD SEEMOXS. 



rejDublish these laws^ reassure mankind of their be- 
neficence^ and by personal grace help them back to 
harmony with the natural laws of character^ the 
fixed laws of His eternal Elngdom. 

4. Tlie Government, or rather the Author and 
Administrator of these laws is 

He who in the heaven of heavens has fixed His throne, 
Supreme of lords, unbounded and alone/' 

Because He is the Author of our being, the Inde- 
pendent upon whom the universe depends; above all, 
because He is self-det-ermined perfection, His nature 
is the law to all being. Wliile He must be thought 
by us as consciously absolute, infinite, He evinces His 
relative, formal consciousness; the Word, which was 
in the beginning with God and was God, by creating 
the universe and maintaining conditions upon which 
has arisen all tj^es of being, all forms of life through 
the ages. Grasping the theoretic scheme implicit 
in absolute truth and infinite good. He has projected 
the forces, physical and spiritual, which shall render 
that scheme explicit in the experience of finite per- 
sons through eternity. All His plans and activities, 
whether in material phenomena or ment-al structure, 
moral character or civil government, are right and 
have right to be obeyed, because they express that 
nature which i<s the constant actualization of abso- 
lute truth, namely, infinite love. 

11. The Powees of Christ's Kixgdo:^. — Three 



SEEMONS. 



211 



distinct forms of power are necessary to constitute a 
government. These are termed the legislative, the 
judicial, and the executive powers. Whatever form 
of government may be supposed, these three are 
essentially involved and exercised. Otherwise there 
can be no government. In our Eepublic these powers 
are, by the Constitution, distributed into three 
branches or departments. The Legislative or law- 
making power is held jointly by the two houses of 
Congress. The Supreme Court is the head of the 
Judicial Department which defines and systematic- 
ally applies the laws to the facts and relations of 
civic interests as held by citizens. It is the law- 
applying power. Visiting the White House we meet 
the President. What manner of man he is concerns 
us mainly as to his fitness to wield the power placed 
in his hands, tJie executive, or law-enforcing power 
of the government. It is his to see that the laws 
enacted by Congress and defined by the courts shall 
be enforced by the officers and men under his com- 
mand; even to the use of army and navy. The laws 
which Congress provides may be wise and just; they 
may be well defined and their application clearly 
pointed out by the judges, but unless there is an 
executive power to execute, enforce them, and that 
power is exercised, the government falls to the 
ground. An inefficient, incompetent, or unfaithful 
type of ofiicer would be most unfit to administer 
these executive duties. 



212 MEMOIES AXD SEEMONS. 



The Legislative power in the kingdom of char- 
acter is not entrusted to politicians, nor to finite 
minds of any class^ however wise or distinguished. 
The elements of character are tcH3 subtle^ delicate, 
and far-reaching in their interminable nature to 
be committed to anj^ but the Infinite Mind. The 
Supreme Lawgiver alone can discern the needs, 
discriminate the thoughts and intents^ measure the 
powers and adjust the responsibilities of the human 
heart. 

Who made the heart 'tis He alone 

Decidedly can try us. 
He knows each cord, its various tone, 

Each spring, its various bias/' 

We maj' depend there is not in this Kingdom a 
single law which can be thought defective^ unkind, 
corrupt, or oppressive. Eemember that in determin- 
ing your character you are dealing with immaculat-e 
law. 

That He is the Supreme Judge is also to be 
borne in mind. The immaculate laws of character 
are committed to none but the Infallible Judge to 
apply. Although these laws are of infinite scope 
they are infinitesimally minute in their application. 
Though holding in synthetic grasp the interests of 
the entire universe for all eternity, He overlooks no 
humble and contrite heart. WTiatever cares of uni- 
versal empire may need His attention, the poorest 
child on earth has always a representative, an angel 



SEEMONS. 



213 



at His court. And that the whole meaning of the 
laws of character may be within practical applica- 
tion by the weakest responsible person, His great 
digest of divine law, the Bible, reduces all to one 
eimple but all-comprehending precept, ^^Thou shalt 
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, 
might, and strength; and thy neighbor as thyself/^ 
The Judge has declared this the fulfillment of the 
whole law. Be assured no intricate technicalities 
can ensnare and defeat you in the juri-sdiction of 
character if you obey this simple precept. 'Sov 
think for a moment that by any pretense or impos- 
ing form of worship you can procure from Him a 
decision at variance with this law of love. A great 
poet puts it well: 

In the corrupted currents of this world 
Offenses gilded hand may shove by justice ; 
And oft 't is seen the wicked prize itself 
Buys out the law: but 't is not so above ; 
There is no shuffling, there the action lies 
In his true nature ; and we ourselves compelled, 
Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults, 
To give in evidence.'' 

Men may accuse you falsely, may give you a false 
reputation; by adulation, flatter and mislead you, 
or by detraction sink you in the esteem of men. 
Friends may forsake, foes triumph, or ambitious 
self-seekers keep you ^^out of sight,^^ but this Judge 
who looks upon the heart is your final Judge. From 



214 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



Him there is no appeal. He can not err or be bribed 
or overawed^ but is allwise, pure, faithful, independ- 
ent. All wrong decisions men have made against 
you will he reversed, world without end. 

The executive power is also in His hands. All 
the infinite scruple to create the conditions and 
safeguard the perpetual interests of a personal king- 
dom by securing moral purity have been conducted 
with reference to the enforcement of the laws of 
character. In a word, the divine force in its normal 
action so interacts with us as to be self-executing. 
There are those who think and teach, substantially, 
that after projecting a vast moral empire, with 
infinite wisdom, justice, and benevolence, God will 
shrink from the appalling task of executing the 
results of these stupendous factors. 

We have scarcely emerged from an age of senti- 
mental theology in this land, which has nursed the 
soft illusion that the King of kings is, after all, 
little else than a doting imbecile when it comes to 
enforcing law in vindication of the righteous, or 
punishment of those who have rejected His pardon- 
ing mercy. Has He illustrated the enforcement of 
His laws in nature, and urged obedience in. revela- 
tion, but to surrender it in the realm of moral char- 
acter, indeed ? May men accept divine laws as good 
advice, or spurn them with impunity? After stig- 
matizing sin as infinitely criminal by the agonies 
of Calvary, is He strangely weak in dealing with 



SERMONS. 



215 



persistent sinners? May they^ indeed, malign His 
holy character, debase His children, persist in vile 
character, or commit the blackest of crimes against 
society, yet His mercy be so nndiscriminating He 
will never insist upon moral rectitude in them nor 
in His administration, nor subject them to retribu- 
tive punishment? 

There have been amiable but weak old gentle- 
men who, in their family government, illustrated 
this substitution of imbecility for reforming mercy. 
They counseled their children against evil doing and 
urged obedience to their precepts. But the children, 
finding they would never be punished, continued 
their course of disobedience. They used the paternal 
lenience as further opportunity for wickedness and 
appropriated their father^s mercy and money as en- 
couragement in their dissolute and shameless lives 
until the household was wrecked in financial, social, 
and moral bankruptcy. Even children learn to de- 
spise such government, and contemptuously look 
upon righteousness, good counsel, and clemency as 
things akin to the doting impracticability and weak- 
ness of their imbecile or corrupt parents. 

Or, this soft theology would have us believe that 
good and evil are but longer and shorter roads to 
the same divinely happy end. Or, at worst, dn is 
hut a mistake, to he corrected hy culture. "With 
respect to the recompense of the reward, for which 
Moses ^^refused to be called the son of Pharaoh^s 



216 MEMOIES AND SEEMOFS. 



daughter, suffered affliction with the people of God/^ 
and for forty years ^^endnred as seeing Him who is 
invisible/^ Pharaoh took the easier and more direct 
route. John the Baptist must have made a cardinal 
mistake when he exclaimed to the multitude, ^'^Be- 
hold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of 
the world/^ It seems unthinkable that he would 
mislead them to regard Jesus of Nazareth as about 
to be a sacrificial offering for sin, by divine appoint- 
ment, if sin is but a mistake correctable by culture. 
Or, if Saint Paul, after years of suffering for it, 
did receive a crown of righteousness a few years 
before Nero's arrival in the New Jerusalem, the 
difference in time would be so small compared with 
a mutually blissful eternity, their terms of happiness 
would be virtually the same. While Nero finds his 
jolly fiddling while Eome was burning has worked 
for him an eternal weight of glory, Paul might re- 
gret that he ever wrote, ^^If any man love not the 
Lord Jesus Christ let him be anathema Maranatha/' 
The whole tenure of the Sacred Scriptures is mis- 
leading, or this soft theology is rubbish. 

A maudlin conception of divine love seems to 
be at the bottom of all this undiscriminating cant 
about "the infinite love,'' the ''boundless goodness 
of God." But when we face the question, What 
is love? we can see it is devotement to perfection of 
being; and as in infinite love God realizes infinite 
perfection, man by love must realize his recovery 



SEEMONS. 



317 



from selfishness and find his highest perfection in 
love. Hence God^s loving kindness can not be a 
gushing, haphazard abandon, but an altruistic spirit 
prompting men and helping them to actualize per- 
fection of human character. 

If God were simply and singly benevolent, wholly 
devoted to conferring blessings upon others, regard- 
less of their responsibility to &od or men for the 
use or abuse to which they might appropriate these 
advantages. He would thus ignore the true, the per- 
fect intent, and would become a willing party to 
such abuse, a willing party to selfishness in others. 
He would have no personal subjective interest in thus 
giving out, save the gratification of His power to 
give. Which, in such case, would be a selfish and 
wicked satisfaction. This giving would lose the 
quality of benevolence as well as that of holiness, 
and would therefore cease to be love. It would be 
a vain prodigality of resources fraught with de- 
grading tendency to its recipients, and hence a con- 
nivance at their degradation. In the event any of 
these recipients should regret his own degradation 
and aspire to something better, he could find neither 
sympathy or incitement in God^s action to help 
him back to moral purity. It could not offer con- 
ditions to moral recovery. Hence divine love, re- 
garded as unqualified altruism, omnipotent alms- 
giving, would be unable to promote a successful per- 
sonal character or universe. Divine altruism with- 



218 MEMOIES A^^D SEEMOITS. 



out intention to promote excellence of charax^ter in 
its recipients is simply universal selfishness, and 
must degrade both Creator and creature. When 
we say of God^s self-determined nature, by authority 
of either reason or revelation, that "Grod is love/^ 
we say He is perfect for Himself, and therefore per- 
fect for the good of all others. (And when we say 
He is intentionally perfect, we declare He is holy. 
Intentional perfection is the holy in God. Inten- 
tionally seeking to be our best, our perfection, is 
holiness in us.) Thus the holy, by rendering either 
God or man his best for all others, is the source 
of benevolence. Action fails to be love when 
either of these qualities is wanting. The realization 
of love as the law of the Divine Kingdom therefore 
means that the law will be enforced in order that 
the greatest good may be attained, the largest bless- 
ing be achieved. 

The same authority which by virtue of His per- 
fect nature, love, is the Lawgiver and Judge proves 
to all who interact with Him an exalting, purifying 
flame, but to all who persistently abuse His love, a 
consuming fire. Christ, at once the ^^Man of sor- 
rows,^^ ^^acquainted with grief,'^ and the Head of 
His Kingdom, stands both the Compassionate Bur- 
den-bearer saying, ^^Come unto Me and I will give 
you rest,^^ and also the standard. Judge, and Vindica- 
tor of character, separating the ^^precious from the 
vile,^' the ^^sheep from the goats,^^ and consigning 
these to eternal life and those to eternal penalty. 



SERMONS. 



219 



The supposition that the executive power of 
Christ is of less force in the results of character 
than are His laws in the construction of character 
is but a dream of the carnal mind, an apology for 
human selfishness; an attempt to reassure human 
vanity, avarice, and lust. The vast increase in crime 
in the last half-century in our land — increase espe- 
cially among cultured and even Church-going people 
— is a logical accompaniment of this loose teaching 
of the ^^Liberal^^ press, platform, and pulpit, dis- 
crediting Christ* s own unflinching declarations of 
future retribution. Its deadly effect is to neutralize 
the sense of the criminality of sin. 

What is sin ? Let us face the question fairly, and 
frankly accept a candid answer. One has said, ^'^He 
that can not reason is an idiot, he who dares not rea- 
son is a coward, and he who will not reason is a 
bigot.^^ Assuming all present here are able to rea- 
son, let us hope there are none who will play the 
part of coward or bigot. What is sin? We hold 
the right of property sacred. We brand him a thief 
and robber who violates that right. Yet what are 
we when devoting our soul, life, influence, and in- 
terests as ignoring God, whose property we are ? By 
right of creation and preservation our being belongs 
to God. By right prior to and more enduring than 
any by which you hold personal property or real 
estate you are His. Yet while you continue in sin 
you are filching from God that which is His by 
these original, inalienable, eternal rights. Further, 



220 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



although you have by sin forfeited the clemency of 
God and deserve subjection to the results of your 
own undoing, you have been ransomed, "bought with 
a price/^ even the precious blood of the Lamb of 
God. In mercy He offered amnesty to our race; 
and pardon, purifying, and restoration to divine favor 
of every one who will accept the divine agony of Love 
as Calvary^s stigmatization of sin, and proffered 
mercy to sinners. By the right of redemption you 
are His! But while you continue in sin you rob 
God of the fruits of this purchased redemption. 
More, you are playing into the hands of His ene- 
mies, throwing the influence of your life into the 
scale of wickedness, and helping to swell the vast 
flood of evil environment in which thousands upon 
thousands of our race are perishing. 

This is but a slight glimpse of sin^s enormity. 
A great poet has well said, "Who steals my purse 
steals trash, but he who robs me of my good name 
takes that which not enriches him, but makes me 
poor indeed.^^ And our civil law declares by the 
penalties it affixes to the crime of slander how much 
dearer is the right to reputation than that to prop- 
erty. The innocence of childhood, the image of 
God in which Christ recognized you as members of 
His Kingdom, you have defaced by a thousand sins. 
The merciful conditions daily extended to you for 
your recovery you have perverted into opportunity 
for further sinful indulgence; every blessing turned 



SEEMOXS. 



221 



into a curse! You, and the millions who^ like you, 
have hardened their hearts and corrupted their lives, 
have made the general environment such a seething 
pool of moral turpitude that innocent souls are 
tarnished, as they come to years, by the immoral- 
ities of society. Thus the love of God, which offers 
to share the good of being with each member of 
our race, secures to the sinning the conditions to 
forgiveness and purity, seeking by providence and 
the gospel to surround human life with the best 
conditions to peace, progress, and eternal life, is 
infinitely slandered by these vast perversions. Many, 
indeed, question ^Vhether life is worth living/^ ^^Is 
God benevolent, malevolent, or indifferent?^^ Thus 
perverting themselves, abusing their blessings, and 
corrupting the general environment sinners slander 
God^s creation, Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Church, 
His covenant, and love. Thieves, robbers, slanderers 
in the Kingdom of Christ! 

But let us remember that Christ said to His 
disciples, ^Tear not them that kill the body, but 
are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear Him 
who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.^^ 
On what account, by what means is this murder of 
the soul? If this be the chief of what Christ terms 
^^the works of the deviV^ who are his assistants in 
this slaughter of souls? What of the man who 
opens the window and steadies the ladder for the 
assassin to climb to the bed chamber of his victim. 



222 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



or shows him the vital spot where to plunge the 
dagger? The civil law holds him a participant in 
the crime^ equally guilty with the wretch who chose 
to wield the bloody knife. So, also^ while you con- 
tinue in sin you class yourself with the assassin of 
souls. It is not^ indeed^ the slaughter of bodies^ 
merely^ in a lone bed chamber, along the highway, 
or in the slums, but of priceless souls in helFs awful 
carnival of sin. How wonderful, how horrid, in- 
deed, that parents will, by their example, influence, 
and even incitement, aid the enemy of souls to en- 
snare and murder their children ! Alas, alas ! that 
any one will for any vanity or gratification partici- 
pate in the destruction of a human soul ! A crime 
so hideous that in comparison with its turpitude 
Christ declares physical slaughter but trivial. Com- 
pared with the insinuating pleasures of vice, or the 
malign influence of a godless example, the bludgeon 
or dagger were harmless toys. how malign and 
terrible the assassins of human souls! Murderers 
in the Kingdom of Christ! 

But there is a crime which embosoms in its black- 
ness all other crime. Theft, robbery, arson, slander, 
murder are all involved in this. It aims to violate 
not merely one, but all law : to overthrow the govern- 
ment itself, the source and guardian of all the laws. 
Nations and men everywhere recognize this in civil 
government as the embodiment of all crime. It is 
the crime of treason. The traitor carries in his pur- 



SEEMONS. 



223 



pose the possibility of all crimes, and is basely rec- 
reant to all his obligations to the government and 
the rights and interests of society which^ with his 
own, it protects. 

Patriotism is more than merely following the 
flag and drum, does not end with cheers when the 
band strikes up the Star-spangled Banner, nor with 
the glowing oratory of Independence Day. Deeper 
than all that, patriotism, loyalty, recognizes what 
the government is and does for you and yours, and 
obligates you to respond by obedience to its laws, 
devotion to its honor, and upholding its authority, 
if need be, with your life. 

Turn now to the Kingdom of Christ, where your 
obligation to loyalty is incomparably greater than 
is possible toward any human government. Eefusing 
the reign of Christ in your heart and life you imply 
His dethronement everywhere. By repelling His 
supreme rule of your life you do all you are able 
to hurl Him from His throne. Thus recreant to 
your priceless citizenship you are a traitor in the 
highest, all dominating sphere of your being. 

Treason, treason, intensified by every obligation 
in which the Kingdom of Christ surpasses the civil 
state, is stamped upon your foreheads. The inner 
region of character where the subjection of the car- 
nal nature is all important; where brutality, self- 
ishness, and often despair would rob our life of all 
for which it is worth living; where a love deeper 



224 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



and stronger than earthly love is needed to purify 
and calm the heart; here, where all earthly govern- 
ment fails to help or save or inspire, Christ^s King- 
dom gives ns freedom from guilt, the love and do- 
minion of sin, and offers motives of infinite magni- 
tude to prompt us in our battle with sin. In a word, 
Christ puts us in the way to realize an ideal life, 
that we may share the glories of a realized ideal 
universe. To you who are rejecting the rule of Christ 
in your hearts, who continue as traitors to the King- 
dom of God within you ; to you, I say, though you fill 
the air with huzzas and pyrotechnics on your nation's 
festal days ; though you stigmatize the names of Judss 
and Benedict Arnold, I dip my pen in the blood of 
Calvary and write upon your foreheads. Treason, 
Treason, Treason ! Traitors in the kingdom of char- 
acter! Traitors to the cause and reign of moral 
purity and eternal well-being! Foes of honorable 
citizenship and personal loyalty, assassins of souls 
and robbers of God! Enrolled by your own choice 
on the criminal records of an eternal kingdom, mild 
or violent in crime only as selfish convenience may 
dictate, think you a maudlin, undiscriminating con- 
ception of the divine nature will suspend the execu- 
tive power which stands for the integrity of uni- 
versal moral empire? Not so, saith the prophet: 
^^In the hand of Jehovah there is a cup, and the 
wine is red, it is full of mixture, and he poureth 
out of the same, but the dregs thereof all the 



SEEMONS. 



225 



wicked of the earth shall wring them out and drink 
them/' 

Kings and peoples, by their unfaithfulness in the 
outer realm of civic life have ripened the fruits of 
inner recreance to Christ, filling the world with 
national and individual evil only to witness at last 
to the executive power of Christ whose retributions 
have mingled their ancient splendors with the sands 
and marshes of Assyria, India, and Egypt. Euins 
of Babylon, Baalbec, Palmyra, and Karnack are 
monuments bearing time's ineffaceable inscription: 
"Xow, therefore, be wise ye kings; be instructed, 
ye judges of the earth. Serve Jehovah with fear, 
and rejoice with trembling; kiss the Son, lest He be 
angry, and ye perish in the way when His wrath is 
kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that take 
refuge in Him.'' Christ Himself protrayed His 
retributive coming to separate bad from good, trai- 
tors from patriots, goats from sheep, and gave notice 
of the executive order, "^^These shall go away into eter- 
nal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." 

Shall we be told the eternal laws of the Divine 
Kingdom are to be forever mocked by men and 
fiends? Are we to believe the time will never come 
when world-wide infamy will settle upon men and 
women whose selfishness has heaped high the woes 
of their fellow-men? Xay! divine love is the most 
intense and quenchless flame ever kindled; ardent 
enough to weld the eternal bonds of universal har- 

15 



226 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



mony^ or, by the sinner's self-perversion, prove the 
^Vrath of the Lamb/' 

None but the faithful are true patriots! To all 
who have not decisively rejected Christ, His offer 
of amnesty, pardon, and restoration to citizenship 
is secure. To all who accept this He will prove an 
executive force to condemn and cast out sin, and 
bring every thought and imagination into subjection, 
and soon to issue the executive order, "Come, ye 
blessed of My Father — je have been faithful over 
a few things, be rulers over many/' 

III. The Evident Destiny of Christ's King- 
dom. — Christian patriots, in the strife of self con- 
quest you are counting all things but loss for the 
sake of character; character built by faith — that 
action which accepts the Christ-ideal and subjects 
the practical life to that ideal; character which 
"with open face" reflects the passing of the soul 
from the glory of self condemnation, through re- 
pentance, to the greater glory of likeness unto Christ. 
Be it yours to render your civil government a genu- 
ine loyalty, and to Christ the service, love, and loy- 
alty of immortal citizenship. One is temporal, the 
other eternal. Your beginnings of ever enlarging 
personal character, here, assure you of immortality 
in which to carry forward the process of an ever- 
enlarging eternal life. When your physical condi- 
tions have been cast off, worldly good outgrown, 
earthly achievement transcended, you will appear 



SEKMOjSTS. 



227 



in the presence of your King according as you will 
have wrought yourselves in the use of divine grace. 
This, your character, will be the net result of all 
your earthly opportunities and struggles. This is 
immortality — the determining one^s character, illus- 
trating Christian perfection by perfect progressive- 
ness, "having right to the tree of life.^^ The time 
is coming when all the loyal peoples of this King- 
dom shall constitute one community. "There shall 
be one fold, one Shepherd.^^ When, standing on the 
towers of the ISTew Jerusalem, we shall behold, un- 
aided by optic glass, the faithful of many far-off 
climes and perhaps planets, tending and hastening 
on fiery car or angel wing toward the Holy City — 
when the glad hallelujah shall roll out upon the 
river of life, and the glory of a revealed Godhead 
shall encircle us in its uncreated brilliancy, then 
shall we begin to realize the glory of Christian char- 
acter, and taste the raptures of an endless jubilee. 

From the steamer^s deck we have watched the 
waves as they rolled from the wheel and, receding, 
grew less and less until lost in the general smooth- 
ness of the distant, calm expanse. So, looking back 
along the tide of time, we see nations rising, flour- 
ishing, falling, and passing away, until lost in the 
general oblivion of the receding, silent past. Assyria 
has gone; Babylon, "the glory of the Chaldee^s excel- 
lency,^^ Tyre, Phoenicia, Carthage, have sunken ! So 
with Rome; old, mighty, magnificient Rome! Her 



228 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



mighty Caesars and armies have perished^ gone with 
the forgetting^ forgotten past. Christ,, still advanc- 
ing^ presses on to universal empire. 

What of the nations of to-day? China, Japan, 
Germany, France, Great Britian, America? Other 
great nations have perished; these, too, must pass 
away, their glory fade like a dream, their songs die 
away on the ear of time. But, when all are gone 
and forgotten, you and I shall live, citizens of a 
Kingdom not of this world. 

Let earth^s patriotism chorus ^The Watch on 
the Ehine,^^ France's ^^Marseillaise H}Tiin,^^ Britain's 
^^God Save the King/' and America's "^^Star-spangled 
Banner;" but above all, henceforth and ever be ours 
the anthem, ^"^jSTow unto the King eternal, immortal, 
invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever 
and ever. Amen !" 

Here, at the campfire of immortal patriotism, 
let the philosopher relight his lamp. Its glow shall 
reveal divine love's ideal universe as the immacu- 
late altar whose demands have been honored, satis- 
fied, by "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the 
world." The divine agony, incident to centuries 
on centuries of the offense of evil and the persistence 
of divine mercy, has been endured by that slain 
Lamb until evil has defeated itself, proven itself 
wholly vile, helpless, and infinitely criminal. Love 
has endured, outlasted sin, and proved infinitely ex- 
cellent through every abuse which the free perver- 



SEEMOXS. 



239 



sity of men and devils could invent. The last action 
in the drama of the ages is finished. Man^s com- 
promises and conventions with sin have run their 
course. Their splendors are in ashes. The execu- 
tive power of the Christ, abused while patient and 
merciful, now reacts upon its abuses. That reac- 
tion is in sin^s self-defeat, the sinner^s self-perver- 
sion, self-perversion's self-limitation, self-limitation's 
self-sinking of personality, and personality's process 
of perishing. 

All, in heaven, earth, and hell — aye, in the whole 
universe — now see and feel that evil is worthless and 
wholly vile; a baseless, shameless failure to outrival 
the empire of divine love. Its power to tempt is 
now forever lost. Its votaries, now, can but weep 
and wail and gnash upon each other in dire, despair- 
ing reproach. Swiftly divine love's ideal universe 
is being realized in Christ's Kingdom. Human and 
angelic freedom and harmony are attained inviolate, 
and forever assured through the free self-conquest 
of the multitudes that have come up through great 
tribulation, "having washed their robes and made 
them whit^ in the blood of the Lamb." They have 
lived, labored, and endured for the love of truth; 
they now rejoice to stand out in the full, white 
light of truth's unclouded day, ready to amend, cor- 
rect, or discard their every mistaken or crudely cher- 
ished belief, ready to embrace every new revealment 
of eternal truth. 



230 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



All hail, The Overcomers ! Free^ harmonious^ 
secure ! Around you shall gather and grow to stead- 
fastness the innocence of childhood^ the late-found 
loyalty of the deathbed penitent^ and perhaps the 
untested devotement of angel ranks. They shall see 
and feel the power and glory of your triumph of 
faith and love over a life of inner selfishness and a 
world of outer temptation. Every fear and foe over- 
come, every doubt dispelled, every question settled. 
Christ^s reign of love, having proved equal to the 
infinite strain of enduring sin's utmost development, 
is now secure in the voluntary and victorious loyalty 
of His saints. The problem of evil is forever solved, 
the tempting power of sin forever dead ! 

At the Philosopher's lamp let the Seer again 
light his torch to explore as he may the oncoming 
future. Around me let me wrap the prophet's man- 
tle. I see the ground cleared for the full range of 
the Creator's power. A new cycle is begun ! The 
love-built universe, now freed from the limitations 
which- evil men and institutions had imposed, now 
unfolds its boundless resources of good. The hosts 
of Overcomers have settled the now all-prevailing 
public sentiment, God is love and love is the one 
universal, only law. Commandments and codes are 
superseded by the spontaneity of love in every heart. 
All do as they choose. All choo^ to do right ! The 
danger of defection is no more! Love reveals the 
new, universal Eden. The thought and pride of 



SEEMONS. 



231 



time have passed with the dreams of undated eter- 
nity. 

The Spirit of God^ that first moved npon the 
face of primeval waters, now sweeps forward to 
achieve the boundless good of disembarrassed crea- 
tive power. "Worlds emerging from chaos and re- 
turning in flood and fire. New firmaments spark- 
ling with new creations and new realms of ineffable 
felicity explored and colonized by nations redeemed 
from the earth Perhaps new beings of highest 
created type bursting full orbed upon a peerless ca- 
reer of thought and action ! Eternity grows hoary. 
Yet do I see you, my brethren, blooming in immor- 
tal youth, remembering, indeed, those light afBic- 
tions which were but for a moment, only because 
they have "worked for you a far more exceeding 
and eternal weight of glory.^^ Onward, onward ye 
press amid the ever ripening splendors of eternity^s 
golden age, while there is a nook of infinity unex- 
plored, or a depth of divinity imsounded. 

Hail! All Hail, Fellow Citizens of the King- 
dom Not of this World! 



232 MEMOIES AND SERMONS. 



MOSES. 

By faith, Moses, when he was come to years, refused 
to he called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choos- 
ing rather to suffer affliction with the people of 
God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a sea- 
son, accounting the reproach of Christ greater 
riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he looked 
unto the recompense of reward. By faith he 
forsooh Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the 
King; for he endured as seeing Him who is in- 
visible.— Reh. 11:24-27. 

In no age of tlie world, more than in this, did men 
need to keep before them examples of true and 
strong character; for the inspiration of youth, the 
reassurance of manhood, and the promotion of the 
largest and strongest moral excellence. It is not 
hero worship, but worthy emulation, to study and 
celebrate strong and lustrous names. 

Tracing backward the leading events of Ameri- 
can history through upwards of forty years we come 
upon, not a myth, but a man who gave shape to 
that history, the colossal Lincoln. Tracing that his- 
tory a hundred years further we find, not a myth, 
but another history -making man, the majestic Wash- 
ington. Pressing still backward four thousand years, 
along the history of that body of truth which Lin- 
coln and Washington defended, the Decalogue, we 



SEEMONS. 



233 



stand in the presence of, not a mjth^ but a man, a 
leader of revolution, a lawgiver and seer, the most 
stupendous maker of history ever called from the 
ranks of men, the transcendent Moses. 

The very affluence of our day in material, mental, 
and moral supplies tends to give us over to indul- 
gence, dissipation, and utter flimsiness of character. 
Spiritual, like physical digestion and assimilation 
suffers from excessive feeding. Weakness instead of 
strength must follow. Would you attain your great- 
est possible mental and moral power you must forego 
large acquisitions of miscellaneous information. 
Without our wider range of information the ancients 
developed greater strength of character. With such 
view I ask your attention to certain features of this, 
concededly, strongest character — aside from Jesus 
of Nazareth — that has appeared in human history. 

The text presents certain very remarkable state- 
ments; we will consider these three: 

I. The surprising choice made by Moses. 
II. Upon what ground did he make that choice ? 

III. The outcome, or vindication of his choice. 

I. To see how remarkable, even marvelous, was 
this choice we must consider what it comprehended, 
in both substance and circumstances. 

The renunciations it implied must be consid- 
ered. You recall easily the story of his having been 
found in a floating cradle, or ark, moored in the 
river^s side, where he had been placed by his Hebrew 



234 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



mother to hide him from the executioners of Pha- 
raoh^s decree to slay all male Hebrew children of 
two years old and under^ in Egj^pt. And now he is 
found by the daughter of Pharaoh^ adopted as her 
son and brought up in the King^s palace. 

From incidently mentioned facts in the Scrip- 
tures we can readily accept the statements of certain 
secular writers in praise of the personal beauty and 
majesty of this man. In addition to a comely phys- 
ical presence and sound constitution which even 
an hundred and twenty years did not impair, his 
intellect must have been of the highest order. Be- 
sides he was educated in ^'^all the learning of Egj^pt.^^ 
This learnings according to antiquarians, was the 
highest to which the world had yet attained; and 
though greatly surpassed in some respects, has not 
been equaled in others of the present day. The 
magnificence of their architecture, the beauty of 
their almost imperishable paintings, the marvelous 
extent and elaboration of their buildings, as seen in 
the ruins found in the desolate wastes of that land, 
fill the traveler's mind with amazement. This cul- 
ture in art was paralleled in philosophy and litera- 
ture, and their systems of religion, the studies of 
polytheistic lore, magic and occult science gave a 
wizzard-like charm to the song and story, legend 
and history which celebrated and embalmed the 
names of ancient beauties and heroes ; and even to this 
day throw a preternatural halo around that phrase, 



SEEMONS. 



235 



^^all the learning of Egj^pt/^ The cultured tastes ac- 
quired among the scholars, sages, and diviners in the 
temples and palaces of the Pharaohs must have fitted 
Moses pre-eminently to move in the dazzling court 
life of Oriental splendors. 

According to Josephus he had distinguished him- 
self as a military leader, at the head of an Egyptian 
army. When the Egyptians had been beaten back 
by the invading Ethiopians to take shelter under 
the walls of Memphis, their capital, Moses, placed 
in command by the King of Egypt, defeated the 
invaders in battle, outgeneraled them in their re- 
treat, drove them into their own capital, and se- 
cured its surrender. There seems allusion to the 
same or similar exploits in the address of Saint 
Stephen before the Jewish Council, in which he 
refers to not only the personal comeliness, the tal- 
ents, and learning of Moses, but to his exploits, say- 
ing, "He was mighty in words and works.^^ His 
great military success doubtless made him the popu- 
lar idol of court and people. 

But beyond all this there stood out the fact that 
he was in the line of succession to the throne. Pha- 
raoh^s daughter, Thonoris, who was childless, and 
later ascended the throne vacated by the death of her 
father (Amenephis), son of Eamesis the famous 
architectural monarch of the nineteenth dynasty, 
cherished the purpose to make Moses her successor. 
To sit on the throne of "Ramesis the Greaf ^ was 



236 MEMOIES AND SERMONS. 



an ambition to stir the heart of the noblest prince. 
The splendors of Egyptian wealth, pleasure, and 
power; the famous "treasures of Egypt/^ gathered 
by ancestral kings, would be his. Caravans from 
Tyre, Sidon, Assyria, Babylonia, and India would 
bring their wares and wealth to his capital; princes 
and kings court his favor and tremble at his word. 
These kingly possibilities, with all they meant of 
riches, power, and splendor of political achieve- 
ments, were but a part of the renunciations of his 
momentous decision when he "refused to be called the 
son of Pharaoh^s daughter.^^ 

2. The burdens which this decision drew upon 
him were greater by far than his renunciations. If 
he had entertained the purpose of ascending the 
throne, and, as king, relieving his people of their 
servitude, it became evident to him that the senti- 
ment of the court and leaders of the people stood 
in the way. And when, by interfering in behalf 
of a Hebrew, who was being abused by an Egyptian 
taskmaster, he found he had exposed his devotion 
to his Hebrew brethren, he fled the country, con- 
vinced that to be the ruler of Egypt he must be 
the oppressor of Israel, and to be the friend and 
helper of Israel he must renounce Egypt. Eenounc- 
ing Egypt he becomes a fugitive (in Arabia), where 
for forty years he lives a shepherd in the employ of 
Jethro, a Midian priest. 

But the call of God which came to him in the 



SEEMONS. 



237 



^^burning bush^^ was a summons to the most difficult, 
burdensome, and heart-testing duty ever laid upon 
any one in the history of our race, save only that 
of the agonizing sufferer of Gethsemane and Cal- 
vary. His forty years of palatial training, luxuri- 
ant living, arduous study, learned acquisition, mili- 
tary achievement, and popular adulation are past. 
Forty years more as a shepherd in the service 
of Jethro affords him mature thought, deep medi- 
tation, and communion with God. Amid the soli- 
tudes of Mount Horeb he is called to the stupen- 
dous task set for him by the God of Abraham. The 
burning bush ^Vhich was not consumed^^ by its 
self-sustained flame, with its mysterious voice 
speaking from its up-leaping blaze, taught him the 
name of the self-existent, independent God, / ehovah. 

Distrust of his fitness for this great commission 
argued his fugitive life as ill-fitting ambassador to 
a king's court; argued he was ^^slow of speech,^^ ^^of 
a slow tongue.^^ He well knew the shallowness of 
human judgment, which ever gives the palm to 
trappy smartness in act or speech. He argued the 
groveling envy and unbelief of the enslaved He- 
brews. But the Independent again asserted Himself, 
saying, "Who hath made man^s mouth? Or who 
maketh dumb or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it 
not I, Jehovah ?^^ 

But, nevertheless, he sent Aaron, Moses^ brother, 
an eloquent man, with him as spokesman, and said. 



238 MEMOIES AND SERMON'S. 



"Go to Pharaoh, and to Israel, and say, The I AM 
hath sent thee, saying. Let the people go/^ He 
could foresee the ill-disposed sentiment of a nation 
of slaves, their unreadiness to endure the inconven- 
iences and hardships of the wilderness, and their 
timidity before a pursuing army. He could well 
weigh the difference between leading a well-drilled 
and equipped army, as he had done, as compared 
with leading a reluctant host of sii hundred thou- 
sand unmilitary men, besides women and children, 
their household stuffs and such nondescript belong- 
ings as would make up the vast impedimenta of 
this attempt to move an entire nation to another 
land. Even if they could elude the power of Egj'pt, 
what wastes of wilderness must be trodden, what 
foreign tribes must be conciliated or overcome ; alas ! 
what hunger and thirst, what suffering of women 
and children, and what defection and sedition among 
the influential men of the Hebrew people. How 
unspeakably vast this undertaking! 

History has celebrated the fortitude displayed in 
the marches and campaigns of Alexander and Hanni- 
bal, Napoleon's march to Moscow, Sherman's march 
from Atlanta to the sea. Grant's Vicksburg Cam- 
paign, and his contention from the Eappahannock 
to Appomattox. But these commanders led the 
best drilled, equipped, seasoned, and victory- 
flushed soldiery of their days. While Moses led 
a host of timid slaves, artisans, brickmakers, shep- 



SEEMONS. 



239 



herds, hewers of wood and drawers of water, ac- 
customed to the taskmaster's lash, with their wives 
and little ones, and aged and decrepit parents; liable 
to be captured by the army of Pharaoh, to be cut 
to pieces in the wilderness or returned to a more 
grinding slavery. Compared with this, it does seem 
the mighty campaigns of all the other great leaders 
pale into mere commonplaces. 

Thus, to the utmost extreme, his choice identi- 
fied with him the slaves of Egypt; ^^choosing rather 
to suffer affliction with the people of God than to 
enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.''^ 

Think of some military hero in our country, 
say fifty or sixty years ago, about to be borne upon 
a wave of popular enthusiasm into the Presidential 
chair. Think of his declining these honors and es- 
pousing the cause of the Southern slaves instead, 
who of all the great Americans would have done 
this? Has human history anything to compare with 
its renunciations and stupendous burdens? Men of 
wide distinction, exalted talents, highest aspirations 
in Church and State, brought up in refined and 
Churchly society, but lacking this one trait, courage, 
rooted in uncompromising principle, have surren- 
dered to Eros or Mammon or Bacchus. But these 
are mere pigmies; unable to peer over the shoe 
buckles of this colossal man. Yet there have been 
many who in various and great emergencies have 
attracted the world^s attention by their courage. 



240 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



But here stands one alone in a well nigh immeasur- 
able arena crowded with temptations and terrors, 
virtually saying to the learned savans, "There is 
something wiser than j^our learning to nobles, 
princes, aristocracy, society, ^^There is something 
more refined than your tasteful magnificence;^' to 
the treasures of Egypt, ^The reproach of Christ is 
greater riches;'' to the old throne of the Pharaoh's, 
"There is a higher seat in an eternal kingdom." 
The outcast Hebrew babe has outgrown the tastes, 
wealth, splendor, and power of all Egypt. These 
renunciations, burdens, and responsibilities suggest 
the contents of that momentous decision: "He re- 
fused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, 
choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people 
of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a sea- 
son." 

II. Upon what ground did he make that choice? 
Or, in other words, what gave him the strength of 
character to make this decision. Faith, the text 
affirms, was the secret of this strength. An ele- 
ment which can inspire such heroism is well worth 
our study. It ought to be understood. Therefore, 
we raise the question, "What is faith Let us not 
be content with the affirmations about faith, however 
fine or striking or Scriptural, but let us insist upon 
a defiinition of what faith is. 

If we would drive to the center of this question, 
we must clearly distinguish the tests of truth; how 



SEEMONS. 



241 



and what we know. These means of knowing are 
of two classes, roughly termed the external and 
internal. The external means of knowing are the 
five senses, by which means we gain knowledge of 
external objects. Guided by these we are said to 
'Valk by sight.'' 

The internal means of knowing are, broadly 
termed, the various modes of consciousness; em- 
bracing self-conscionsness or consciousness of our 
being, rational consciousness, or knowledge of self 
evidence; perception, force, relation, comparison, 
and inference — which we term sometimes logical, 
mathematical, or mechanical consciousness, accord- 
ing to our application of them. We have not only 
this rational consciousness which we call reason, 
but also moral consciousness by which we per- 
ceive the moral qualities, honesty, honor, righteous- 
ness, and duty, and also the moral authority which 
gives us to feel we ought always intend to be and 
do what we understand is right. This is usually 
termed conscience. Trusting in and acting upon 
these inner tests of truth is faith; and they who 
direct their intentions and practices according to 
the promptings thus derived from reason and con- 
science — such as truth, righteousness, God, responsi- 
bility, unselfishness, are said to ^Valk by faith.'' 

If a school boy solves a problem in mental arith- 
metic he does it by faith in his rational, or mathe- 
matical, consciousness; he trusts his consciousness 

16 



242 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



of what is mathematically true. If a farmer, exam- 
ining a plow, and comparing its construction with 
his consciousness of such mechanical form as he 
thinks is required to turn under the rank vegetable 
growth — tall weeds and stalks— produced on his 
rich lands, buys it, he acts by faith, trusts his con- 
sciousness of an ideal plow and acts accordingly. 
When he takes the plow to the field and draws fur- 
row after furrow, and then looks back and sees that 
weeds and stalks in the path of that plow have all 
been buried out of sight he can say that plow is a suc- 
cess. ^^That comes of acting upon the authority of 
the ideal plow. I had faith in that plow when I 
first saw it and I bought it, and now my sight cor- 
roborates my faith/' These instances illustrate in- 
tellectual faith. But when one says this is honor- 
able, this is honest, this is righteous, this is morally 
pure, therefore I will do it, he means that he is con- 
scious of a distinction between righteousness and 
wickedness, and feels it his duty to take the right- 
eous, course. This is moral, or spiritual faith. This 
moral consciousness is the ground upon which all 
men hold each other as praiseworthy or blameworthy, 
according as their intentions axe good or bad. Dis- 
obeying this authority of moral consciousness de- 
grades one's moral character; obeying it, which is 
faith, strengthens and elevates the soul. This is 
religious faith. 

Moses' faith in his rational consciousness was 



SEEMONS. 



243 



sufficient to lift him above the pagan culture, am- 
bitions, and oppressions of Egypt. Faith in his 
moral and religious consciousness led him to trust 
the living God, eventually lifted him into com- 
munion with Jehovah, and to such elevation of 
character as to make the glories of Egypt seem as 
tinselry and trash; the passing pageant of sin. 
Such^ too, was his practical life; he risked every- 
thing on these inwardly tested truths. He brought 
his whole practical life into subservience to his mind^s 
best conception of truth and righteousness, the actual- 
izing or seeking to actualize — being, doing, and en- 
during — his ideal or best conception of such a life 
as he ought before God to live. This ^^Dest concep- 
tion^^ is what we often term our ^^ideal life^^ or 
^^ideal self.^^ Hence our briefest and best definition 
of faith is this. Faith is ^practical subservience of the 
actual to the ideal. 

To have fine ideals of life and revel in poetic 
pictures or speculative theories of these ideals will 
not fill out this definition of faith nor elevate the 
character. Many a reader of fiction or student of 
art or habitue of the theater has illustrated this fact. 
To revel in the beauties of a high ideal is faith with- 
out works, which is dead. To act according or in 
devotion to such ideal life is living faith; which ex- 
ercises and manifests itself in actual works. Hence 
it is clear, faith is acting upon the spiritual facts of 
which we are conscious vAth the same confidence with 



244 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



which we act upon the Tcnowledge derived by any or 
all of the senses. 

The senses have their proper realm and authority 
in material things^, but in the higher realm of thought, 
sentiment, conscience, character, and responsibility, 
faith rises like a spontaneous flame, illuminates the 
inner sky of the soul, lights up the outer practical life, 
and throws its beams forward upon the dim region 
of destiny. Brought into combination with the great 
natural powers of this man, it produced the most 
heroic character of human history. "Whether the Lord 
could have found another man equal to this great 
emergency may well be doubted, since in the entire 
history of man none, excepting always the Man of 
Nazareth, has appeared upon whom He has laid so 
great a burden. His was a faith, not of the fanatic, 
not of a mere wonder-worker, but of the broadest 
grasp, deepest discrimination, strongest purpose that 
has arisen from the ranks of men. It stood unflinch- 
ingly upon his consciousness of God, and the firmness 
of God^s covenant with Abraham, and his confidence 
in the promise of the world^s Eedeemer. ^^He es- 
teemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the 
treasures of Egypt.^^ 

Three distinct types of mind, excellence in either 
of which classes its possessor among the intellectually 
great, found in Moses the highest known combina- 
tion. Wielded by his faith they achieved their am- 
plest exploitation. 1. Pre-eminent practical jndg- 



SERMONS. 



245 



ment, which makes the great man-of-affairs, made 
him the most successful diplomat^ leader of revolu- 
tion, and legislator on record. 2. Pre-eminent philo- 
sophicaJ judgment, informed but not overmastered 
by the learning of Egypt, grasped the scheme of 
human history and its relation to the plans of God; 
and discriminating the sublime position of Abraham 
and his nomadic, homeless children, he broke forth 
in the majestic strain, ^^Lord, Thou art our dwell- 
ing place in all generations! Before the mountains 
were brought forth or ever Thou hadst formed the 
earth or the world, even from everlasting to everlast- 
ing Thou art God 3. Pre-eminent as a seer, that 
type of mind which makes the poet and prophet, he 
rose from the vast official burdens of national leader- 
ship into its higher, divine meaning, and like the 
eagle in the upper sky, above storm-cloud and moun- 
tain peak, saw the range of divine thought as it fore- 
cast the eternal reign of love ; and declared to Israel, 
^^A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up of your 
brethren, like unto me; Him shall ye hear/^ His 
divinely illuminated genius beheld the plan of God, 
passed it down to the minds of men to show them 
the path of progress for all time. This outcast 
Hebrew boy, becoming the lawgiver and leader of 
civilization, was, above all, the prophet like unto 
whom the world^s Eedeemer was to become the Quick- 
ener of all souls and the Leader of all nations. This 
comprehensive scheme and all its incident toils, cares. 



246 MEMOIKS AND SEEMONS. 



woes, and triumps were contents of his faith. Noth- 
ing less could justify the history of the exodus. It 
must grasp the ultimate reign of Christ or nothing. 

III. The Outcome, Vindicating Moses' 
Choice. — How did his faith work out when put to 
practical test in this tremendous leadership ? A few 
instances must suffice to show. We must needs pass 
over, for lack of space, the series of diplomatic con- 
ferences he held with Pharaoh and the demonstra- 
tions of the ten plagues, a scheme of diplomacy singu- 
lar and unmatched in the records of nations. Di- 
vinely directed, yet contingent upon the steadfastness 
of the faith of Moses for its success, it overmatched 
the king, confounded his conselors, refuted the 
pagan craft of his priests and magicians, and wrung 
from every Egyptian household an agonized cry of 
surrender. The last of these conferences closed with 
hot words between Moses and the king. Pharaoh 
wrathfully exclaimed, ^^Get thee from me, take heed 
to thyself, see my face no more ; for in the day thou 
seest my face thou shalt die Moses, ^^not fearing 
the wrath of the king,'^ retorted ^^in hot wrath,^^ 
"Thou hast spoken well ; I will see thy face again no 
more Then — as if "seeing Him that is invisible^^ — 
^^Thus saith Jehovah, About midnight will I go out 
into the midst of Egypt; and all the first-born in 
the land of Egypt shall die, from the first-bom of 
Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the 
first-born of the maidservant that is behind the mill ; 



SEEMONS. 



247 



and all the first-born of cattle. And there shall be 
a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such 
as there hath not been nor shall be any more. But 
against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog 
move his tongue ; against man or beast : that ye may 
know how that Jehovah doth make a distinction be- 
tween the Egyptians and Israel. And all these thy 
servants (oflBcers of court and army) shall come down 
unto me, and how down themselves unto me, saying, 
^Get thee out and all the people that follow thee.^ 
And after that I will go out/' 

Pharaoh and all Egypt and all Israel mw and 
heard and felt the demonstration of Moses^ faith in 
the fulfillment of this awful prediction. On this 
faith, leading six hundred thousand men, besides 
women and children, ^^he forsook Egypt.^^ And now 
we see them on the shore of the Red Sea: in the 
wilderness before Pihahiroth, near Migdol. This, 
strategically considered, is a most unfortunate posi- 
tion. They stand in a deep valley flanked on each 
side with mountainous barriers, the Eed Sea in front, 
and in the rear pursued by the Egyptian army. A 
much shorter and easier route, avoiding the sea, lay 
through Philistia. Observing their unaccountable 
seaward march, the Egyptians exultingly say, ^^They 
are entangled in the wilderness They are at 
Pharaoh^'S mercy; will he capture and drive them 
back into slavery, or will he slaughter them by the 
sea? Upon Moses the Israelites pour their male- 



248 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



dictions^ ^^Because there were no graves in Egypt 
hast thoTi taken us away to die in the wilderness? 
Did we not say, It were better for ns to serve the 
Egyptians But Moses^ faith dictated this intrepid 
answer : ^^Fear ye not ; stand still and see the salva- 
tion of Jehovah/^ The pillar of fire and cloud which 
had led their way to this spot now moves to their 
rear, intercepting between Israel and Pharaoh^s 
army — ^light to this, cloud and darkness to that. At 
God^s word, Moses stretches forth his hand, holding 
the wonder-working rod over the waters; the sea di- 
vides, the Israelites pass over dry shod. The Egyptian 
army, beholding the Hebrews safe on the farther 
shore, attempt to follow, but are themselves en- 
trapped, horses and horsemen rolling, tossing, and 
dying in the returning waters. Well had Moses said 
to his doubting, complaining people, ^^Ye shall see 
them no more forever.^^ 

Still ^^enduring as seeing Him who is invisible,^^ 
Moses hears and bears the murmurings of the He- 
brews as in the wilderness they complain of thirst 
or hunger, ever reproax^hing him for having led them 
from Egypt. Now Jehovah quiets their clamor with 
manna from heaven. Now, as though seeing Jehovah 
standing at his side, Moses smites the rock at Horeb, 
and waters burst forth from its arid bosom to re- 
fresh them daily with its following and unfailing 
stream. And now, when they hunger and murmur 
for flesh food, he calls upon ^^Him who holds the 



SERMONS. 



249 



winds in His fists/^ and He gathers the quails from 
seashore and forest and sweeps them into the rebel- 
lious camp. 

At length they march to the wilderness of Sinai. 

By day, along the astonished lands, 

The cloudy pillar glided slow ; 
By night, Arabia's crimson sands 

Eeturned the fiery columns glow." 

Here Moses was permitted to receive the miracu- 
lous revelation of the Ten Commandments. Here his 
faith as mediator betwixt God and Israel was demon- 
strated with such power and splendor to their eyes 
and ears that they cried, terror-stricken, "Speak thou 
with us and we will hear, but let not God speak with 
us, lest we die.^^ But within forty days, on that 
same spot, while Moses was in converse with Jehovah 
in Mount Sinai, they turned in their hearts to the 
worship of a golden image. The Lord in wrath 
threatened their destruction, saying, "Let Me alone 
that My wrath may wax hot against them and that 
I may consume them;^^ "and I will make of thee a 
great nation.^^ It was as though Jehovah had said, 
"Do not cling to Me with thy persistent faith; My 
name is despised. My loving kindness outraged; let 
Me alone that I may blot them out, and I will 
make of thee a greater and better people.^^ What 
said Moses? Listen to his argument. "Turn from 
Thy fierce wrath. What will the heathen say ? What 



350 MEMOIES AXD SEEMOXS. 



will Assyria say ? What will Egypt say ? ^Their God, 
Jehovah, hath led them forth to slay them/ Ee- 
member Abraham, Isaac, and Israel and Thy cove- 
nant/^ Though the fiery arm of Jehovah blazed with 
uplifted thunderbolts, Moses^ faith prevailed and 
Israel was saved. 

Now we stand beneath the shadow of Mount Xebo, 
in the land of Moab. Westward, Israel is encamped 
in the plains of Moab, by the river of Jordan, oppo- 
site Jericho. Amaleck has been defeated in battle. 
Sihon and Ogg, kings of the Amorites, had been 
conquered and slain, their kingdoms abolished, their 
people exterminated, and their territories seized. The 
theocratic government of Israel is now thoroughly 
organized with laws and officers, the sanctuary 
founded and furnished with priests and orders and 
ritual. Every man above twenty years when leaving 
Egypt is dead, except Caleb and Joshua; and Moses 
is now admonished that his decease is at hand. 
Though he had prayed that he might go over and 
see the good land beyond the Jordon, Jehovah 
barkened not, but said: "Let it suffice thee; speak 
no more unto Me of this matter. Get thee up to 
the top of Pisgah and behold with thine eyes.^^ 

Let us stand a moment with him there while with 
undimmed eyes he gazes westward and northward, 
southward and eastward. Wliat emotions rise and 
surge over this glorious soul ! What had been an 
object of faith is now an object of sight. He had, 
as God's agent, broken the power of Egypt, had freed 



SEEMOXS. 



251 



her slaves, had borne his people^s cares, ills, insults, 
murmurings, accusations, and denunciations of him- 
self. For them he had renounced everything in 
Eg}^pt, had nurtured their hopes, had again and 
again stood between them and the wrath of God, 
had achieved their freedom and their opportunity 
of future glory as a nation. All these he had borne 
for forty years upon his hearths strong faith in God, 
in a ^Tromised Land/^ and a coming Messiah. Xow 
his eyes behold that land promised four hundred 
years before to Abraham and his children. Xow 
the grand problem is demonstrated. The thrill, the 
rapture overwhelms him. The tide of emotion sub- 
merges the mortal life, the body falls, the spirit enters 
the Promised Land above. 

Had he ^'walked by sighf ^ instead of faith, he 
could have rejoiced in sonship to Pharaoh^s daughter ; 
reveled in the pleasures, treasures, power, and splen- 
dor of Egypfs capital; could have been buried, at 
his decease, in all the pomp and splendor of Oriental 
kings, his body embalmed by Egyptian art (to be 
unrolled, in our day, perhaps, like that of Pharaoh, 
a blackened mummy, to be exhibited among reptiles, 
beasts, and birds and nameless corpses in the mu- 
seums). But not so does God guard the honor of 
His faithful one. Even Israel is not deemed worthy 
to inter this noble frame, still majestic in death. 
The murmurers who would have broken a less sturdy 
heart, a less steadfast faith, shall not bring their 
wailings to the grave of this son of God. Only 



252 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



God's eyes shall select, God's hand shall make his 
resting place. We have here this record in brief, 
scant terms, ^^And He buried him in a valley in the 
land of Moab, over against Beth-Peor; but no man 
knoweth of his sepulcher unto this day/' (Deut. 
34:6.) A poet well conceives: 

That was the grandest funeral 

That ever passed on earth ; 
But no man heard the trampling, 

Or saw the train go forth ; 
Noiselessly as the daylight 

Comes when the night is done, 
And the crimson streak on ocean's cheek 

Grows into the great sun. 

Noiselessly as the springtime 

Her crown of verdure weaves, 
And all the trees on all the hills 

Open their thousand leaves. 
So, without sound of music, 

Or voice of them that wept, 
Silently down from the mountain's crown 

The great procession swept. 

* And had he not high honor? 

The hillside for his pall. 
To lie in state while angels wait, 

With stars for tapers tall ; 
And the dark rock-pines like tossing plumes 

Over his bier to wave ; 
And God's own hand in that lonely land. 

To lay him in the grave?" 

The greatest movements, political and social, are 
projected by the faith of great leaders. They do 
not arise from the demonstrations of sense nor the 



SEEMONS. 



253 



triangulations of exact science. The heart ever leads 
the head. Faith is the generalissimo of reason and 
courage. That faith which foresaw the atoning sacri- 
fice to be enacted amid the jeers of Calvary's mob, 
yet esteemed ^^the reproach of Christ greater riches 
than the treasures of Egypt/^ is not forgotten. After 
seventeen hundred years that faith is honored when 
Moses, with Elias, is called to the Mount of Trans- 
figuration to counsel with Christ Himself on the eve 
of that death which amid Eoman scorn and Jewish 
hate He is about to accomplish at Jerusalem. 

But let us pass with St. John to view the hon- 
ored ranks who rejoice in the glorious company of 
heaven's immortals — these ^^that shine as the bright- 
ness of the firmament/' and those more conspicuous, 
in all the varied glory of "the stars for ever and ever." 
Hear their choral praises as the dealings of divine 
love peculiar to each order are celebrated by them 
in song and story! We may hear the "quiring of 
the young-eyed cherubim/' the rhapsodies of child- 
hood innocence, symphonies of the "just made per- 
fect," and the majestic anthems of seraphic hosts; 
but hark! a louder, loftier, all-blending chorus cele- 
brates the conquests of Faith: 

Great and marvelous are Thy works, 
O, Lord God, the Almighty ; 
Eighteous and true are Thy ways, 
Thou King of the ages!'* 

** 'T is the song of Moses and the Lamb 



254 MEMOIRS AND SERMONS. 



THE AGONY OP JESTJS THE CHRIST. 

And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, 
Eloi, Eloi, lama Sahachthani! Which is, being 
interpreted. My God, my God, why hast Thou 
forsaken Me? — Mark 15:34. 

To PEEL the power of these words of Jesus on the 
cross we must understand them. To understand 
them we must have a correct view of His nature and 
the nature of His sufferings. To many who wit- 
nessed His crucifixion He seemed, doubtless, a male- 
factor, impostor, a deceiver of the people; not be- 
cause there was reason to so think, but because the 
chief priests said He was and demanded His punish- 
ment by death. There were others who witnessed 
His death who regarded Him innocent, unselfish, 
well-meaning, a Man who had, partly by His Mes- 
sianic claims and partly by the jealousy of the Jew- 
ish leaders, come to a pitiably bad end. Even His 
friends who had heard much which He taught and 
professed seemed puzzled to solve the real meaning of 
His unique life and strangely tragic death. 

Nor has this conflict of opinion ceased, nor the 
interest in it abated in these well-nigh two thou- 
sand years. Even now the crucifixion of Christ is 
felt more universally than ever before to be the 
most significant, the most important event in the 
history of the world. But the various opinions, im- 



SEEMONS. 



255 



pressions^ suppositions, and speculations have, gen- 
erally^ settled into two well-discriminated views. 
These are known as 

I. The Liberalist. 

II. The Evangelical^ or Orthodox. 

I. The Liberalistic view regards Jesus as having 
been simply and only a human being, the son of 
Mary, but a Man of singular moral purity and pre- 
eminent wisdom among the wisest of mankind; in 
fact, the most spiritually minded, most intimately 
conversant with God of all the sons of men. In 
justice to a few who have been classed as Liberalists, 
it must be said they thought Him more than man, 
though not divine. However, this modified view 
would not materially distinguish them from Liber- 
alists generally in their view of His death. 

Consistent with the Liberalist view of His nature 
His death is regarded as that of a martyr — as Soc- 
rates, St. Stephen, St. Paul, and others who have 
suffered death on account of their principles, faith, 
or cause. So Jesus, true to God and righteousness, 
suffered martyrdom at the hands of His enemies 
and, as He believed, at the hands of the enemies of 
God and truth. Yet His death, however agonizing, 
was nothing more than martyrdom. 

This view, while it pictures a sublime devotion 
to principle, heightened by the immaculate char- 
acter and transcendent teaching of the martyr, as 



256 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



also by the glaring injustice and cruelty of His 
persecutors, seems greatly at fault as a point of view 
from which to understand the cause and nature of 
His agonizing death, especially the exclamation of 
the text; or as affording any religious incentive. 
This will appear from the following facts: 

1. The first of these to be borne in mind is this: 
All sincere religion is founded on the belief that the 
God to whom it is devoted is aware of that devotion, 
understands it, approves it, and sympathizes with the 
worshiper in whatever suffering he must endure he- 
cause of this devotement. Our Sacred Scriptures 
especially dwell upon this fact. They abound in 
representations of divine sympathy, comfort, and 
uplifting fortitude supporting those who endured 
^^'^trials of cruel mockings,^^ tortures, and death for 
their religious faith, their fidelity to God. That 
faith, the substance of things hoped for, had its 
evidence of things not seen in the good response 
obtained by the elders who were sustained in mighty 
achievements or unspeakable sufferings. And Jesus 
Himself had encouraged His disciples with assur- 
ances of God's notice of and care for them ; assuring 
them they need not be anxious as to what they should 
say when brought before rulers and persecuted, for 
God would prompt them by His Spirit what to say. 

Without response of divine sympathy all religion 
is baseless ! Belief in God as a ^^first cause'' may be 
held as an assumption or as a necessarily implied fact 



SEEMOJ^S. 



257 



upon which to account for the world and an in- 
telligible view of the force which projected and car- 
ries on the "natural order/^ But this is only philos- 
ophy. Eeligion would be but a myth if nothing 
evinced to the worshiper that his God recognizes and 
in some way responds to his devotions. And if in 
any way it were positively attested that there can 
be no divine interest^ care^ or sympathy in human 
affairs, religion would be at an end. 

2. Another fact claims our attention at this point, 
namely, Jesus, above all others, as Liberalists con- 
cede, because of His perfect faith in God, His spot- 
less moral character and sublime martyrdom, should 
have been conscious of divine interest and sympathy 
in the hour of His supreme devotement to righteous- 
ness in the name of God; if He was nothing more 
than a perfectly good man, and His death nothing 
more than that of a martyr to the rage of His 
enemies. His case indeed is a supreme test of the 
first foundation fact of religion, as stated above, 
namely, the belief that the God worshiped is aware 
of, is interested in, and sympathizes with the sincere 
worshiper. If He was but a man, and His death 
that of a martyr, in devotion to God^s truth, I re- 
peat, God must be expected to sympathize with Him, 
stand by Him, give Him the consciousness of divine 
interest and sympathy in this supreme crisis. Other- 
wise the failure, the baselessness of religion is proven. 
Its foundation principle is a myth and a sham. 

17 



258 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



3. What are the facts, according to the records, 
of His dying hour? Definitely these: First, He 
died faithful to God! Secondly, He died perfectly 
devoted to the welfare of mankind. Thirdly, He 
died in, perhaps of, mental anguish. Fourthly, He 
died in the consciousness that He was forsaken of 
God. Hence the exclamation. My God, My God, 
why hast Thou forsaken mef Fifthly, His later 
utterances on the cross, though they indicated faith- 
ful submission, did not profess divine sympathy or 
help; this, too, in the presence of His arrogant, 
exulting foes. Alas, alas! A pall of darkness im- 
penetrable covers and quenches the religious aspira- 
tions of our race. Ask me not if I believe God is 
interested in men, cares for their salvation, sympa- 
thizes with their devotion to truth. Do I believe this ? 
No ; not if J esus, dying merely a martyr^s death, died 
forsaken of God; I have no faith in divine sym- 
pathy for any others. 

^^There — the Agnostic, the Atheist, and the com- 
mon" scoffer, standing on this position of the Liberal- 
ist, may triumphantly boast, ^There ! see the supreme 
demonstration that there is no God; or, if there is. 
He cares nothing for men, not even this best of men. 
Religion is here attested a superstition, a myth, a 
mere delusion.^^ And we are compelled to admit that 
this supreme culmination of religious faith demon- 
strates either the futility of religion or the fallacy of 
the Liheralist view. Either ^Tjiberalism^^ or oM re- 
ligion is without rational hope. 



SEEMONS. 



259 



II. Turning back from this chasm of darkness 
to which Liberalism would drive us^ we give ear to 
Jesus Himself — admitted on all hands the wisest of 
teachers and purest of men — and learn from His own 
lips the correct view of His nature^ sufferings, and 
death. In many instances He speaks of Himself 
as a man — Jesus, the Son of Mary; and in many as 
the Son of God — the Christ. In fact, the records 
concerning Him in "The Prophets/^ in His own 
teachings, and in the writings of the apostles are in- 
telligible only by recognizing in Him two natures, 
the divine and human ; God^s Divine Son, the formal 
mode of divine personal consciousness and objective 
action as Creator and Euler of the world; self-con- 
ditioned in the order of time and space. And God's 
Man- Son, or Son of man, the Son of Mary, and 
God's human Son, as was xldam; that is, He was 
the '^second Adam.'' 

In His debate with the Pharisees and scribes con- 
cerning the personal nature of the promised Messiah, 
He silenced them by saying, "If David, then, called 
Him Lord, how is He David's son?" As no answer 
could be given to this question, except that the 
Messiah or Christ was in His divine nature David's 
Lord, and in His human nature David's son, these 
believers in David as an inspired prophet were si- 
lent. (Matt. 22 :45.) 

Peter's declaration, "Thou art the Christ, the 
Son of the living God," Jesus approved and declared 



260 MEMOIES A^B SEEMONS. 



it a revelation from God (Matt. 16: 16.) When the 
time approached when He would yield Himself to 
arrest and the will of His enemies^ He stated dis- 
tinctly, ^^I lay down My life of Myself ; I have power 
to lay it down^ and I have power to take it again.^^ 
Although He had foiled His enemies at various times 
when they sought to kill Him, when the hour of 
atonement drew nigh He unresistingly submitted to 
their will, saying, ^^Now is your hour and the power 
of darkness f His hour to offer Himself for sin, their 
hour to murder Him. 

Many prophecies in the Old Testament, and the 
testimony of John the Baptist — ^^Behold the Lamb 
of God that taketh away the sin of the world^^ — as 
also the entire Gospel of St. John, might be cited 
to an overwhelming extent, establishing this view, 
but I have purposely passed over them for the reason 
that Liberalist criticism, which seeks to discredit 
much of them, might under cover of such plausible 
cavil evade the other unquestioned Gospel records. 
Upon these teachings of Christ rests immovably the 
evangelistic view of the nature of Christ; namely. 
He was the Son of God, the divine nature manifest- 
ing His formal or relative personality as not only 
the Creator, but the loving and merciful Euler of 
a moral empire in which each member of the human 
race, free to live in harmony with Him, has become 
an object of His special solicitude and intervention. 
And that He might accommodate Himself to the con- 



SEEMONS. 



361 



ditions and capacities of the lowest of these, He 
created for Himself a pure human beings a ^^second 
Adam/^ who, born of a virgin at Bethlehem, was 
named Jesus. This human Jesus, as He grew in 
years and stature, gradually became conscious of the 
Son of God, the Creator, revealing Himself within 
His human soul; and that He was called to be the 
Interpreter of divine interest, knowledge, wisdom, 
power, and love to men. That He might be a true, 
faithful, and full Interpreter of the Divine Son, 
as He gradually unfolded Himself to His human 
soul, Jesus gave Himself to frequent and long-con- 
tinued seasons of prayer, and thus freely and faith- 
fully '^offered Himself to God.'' 

According to the record, we see, jirsty His dis- 
closure of divine knowledge and wisdom, at the age 
of twelve, in His conversation with the Jewish doc- 
tors in the temple. And when His mother told Him 
of their anxious search for Him, He replied, ^^Wist 
ye not I would be about My Father's house?" After 
about eighteen years later He attended St. John's 
baptism, when that chosen prophet of God proclaimed 
Him to the multitude as ^^The Lamb of God that 
taketh away the sin of the world." Then followed 
a long season of fasting and prayer in which to 
bring Himself up to the measure of undertaking His 
marvelous ministry of divine truth. 

In this struggle He was subjected to special temp- 
tation—nothing less than to renounce the project of 



268 MEMOIES AXD SEEMOJ^S. 



establishing in the earth the kingdom of divine love 
and^ instead^ adopting the opposite principle, selfish- 
ness, which already ruled the kingdoms of the earth, 
which the temptation assured Him would be handed 
over to Him upon the display of wonder-working 
power in the interest of sin. But though the first 
Adam had fallen before the wiles of the tempter, the 
second Adam firmly resisted the wily diplomat and 
came off conqueror upon this mysterious field of 
psychic conflict. 

Henceforth the records show Him teaching with 
a wisdom and moral elevation before which the 
keenest critics and controversialists were amazed and 
confounded and which compelled some of them to 
confess, "Xever man spake like this Man,^^ and which 
have evinced their divine source by recasting and 
elevating the thought, the institutions, and civiliza- 
tion of the world to the present day. Ever and anon 
there leaped forth at His word demonstrations of 
power, too, which He never professed to originate in 
His human nature, but that it was the going forth 
of God^s might, bearing witness to His mission; 
never for mere wonder-working, but always for a 
righteous purpose, witnessing the presence of God, 
merciful and gracious, mighty to save. 

III. "When at last He had completed His min- 
istry, which had begun with ^^The Sermon on the 
Mount,^^ and had demonstrated the fact of God among 
men, with benignant healing, help, and salvation, and 



SEEMONS. 



263 



by the poor having "the gospel preached unto them/^ 
He rejoiced in spirit. Hitherto in His work divine 
knowledge^ wisdom, and power had gradually ad- 
vanced as by long and lonely seasons of prayer He 
had brought His human consecration up to the pro- 
gressive unfolding of the divine revelation within 
Him. But soon a shadow gathers over His soul as 
another more strenuous consciousness of the inner 
revelation opens up the agony of divine love. In 
Gethsemane He began to be "greatly amazed/^ "sor- 
rowful and sore troubled/^ saying, "My soul is ex- 
ceedingly sorrowful, even unto death/^ Perhaps He 
was not wholly unprepared for this, inasmuch as 
His spotless human soul had felt the pangs of in- 
gratitude, insult, and grief for the rejection which 
had set at nought His gracious efforts to help and 
save men upon the simple requirement that they 
should accept Him as their Savior from sin. But 
now, as the enormity of sin — not as man viewed it, 
nor as the spotless Son of man, even, had appre- 
hended it — but as the divine consciousness measured 
and felt its offense against immaculate, infinite Love, 
it is now beginning to be disclosed by the Divine 
Son of God to the human Son of man, who offers 
Himself io ie mode fully conscious of it in order 
that He may be a sufficient offering unto God to 
acknowledge the full protest of divine love against 
sin, while it extends mercy, pardon, and eternal sal- 
vation to the sinner. He was amazed and appalled 



264 MEMOIRS AND SERMONS. 



when being made to experience what God experi- 
ences of sins infinite offense, and of infinite love's 
yearning for the salvation of man, that man might 
adequately confess through Him the enormity of 
his sin. This attitude of divine love regarding sin 
is the real altar of God, and this spotless human 
Being, made conscious of its requirements, is sancti- 
fied by that altar to be the real and sufficient offering 
to acknowledge and honor them. He must know, 
in order that He may acknowledge it for man, this 
attitude of divine love, with its centuries upon cen- 
turies of agonizing endurance of sin and solicitude 
for the sinner, that He may become ^^able to save 
to the uttermost all who come unto God by Him.^^ 
These requirements or changeless holiness of love 
the divine nature holds first that the whole personal 
universe owes supreme obedience and love toward 
God. Secondly, sin is of infinite demerit, is irrecon- 
cilable antagonism to God, and can find no sympathy 
in the divine nature. Hence a sacrifice or offering 
which, fully acknowledges these requirements must be 
fully conscious of the full demands of this altar. 
It is not strange, therefore, that Jesus was amazed 
and sore troubled when He began to feel the awful 
stress of the divine attitude which for centuries had 
borne the infinite offense of sin that it might demon- 
strate its own demerit and self-defeat, and divine 
love might win sinners from its dire embrace. Nor 
does it seem surprising that with increasing agony 



SEEMONS. 



266 



He saw and felt, more and more, the agony of the 
divine attitude, and that He should pray, ^Tather, 
if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me!^^ N"or 
is it surprising that this sinless Interpreter of God 
to man, who had often found in prayer the means 
of rising to each higher disclosure of divinity, should 
by intense supplication bring Himself to say, '^^Xever- 
theless, not My will but Thine be done/^ 

Strengthened thus to endure further the still- 
growing consciousness of sin^s enormity and the in- 
finite aversion of divine love toward it. He pressed 
on in His call to be an offering which should acknowl- 
edge for the world the full depth of sin's offense 
toward God, until, writhing in agony. He experi- 
enced that the altar has no sympathy with the offer- 
ing, but requires its complete immolation, that it may 
fully acknowledge and express that altar's behest, the 
complete measure of sin's offense against divine love. 
His consciousness of contact or association with the 
divine nature now is that of complete, all-absorbing 
offering of Himself to know and to confess for the 
world God's estimate of and aversion for sin, and to 
express to sinners God's uncompromising determina- 
tion to offer them infinite love's unspotted offer of 
perfect salvation from sin. And when the complete 
sense of this divine aversion fixes its eternal stigma 
upon sin and eclipses all experience of His com- 
munion with God, this writhing, self-sacrificing vic- 
tim to the divine altar exclaims, "My God, My God, 



266 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



why hast Thou forsaken Me?^^ The sacrifice is com- 
plete. The infinite aversion to sin has been fathomed. 
Immaculate mercy toward sinners is explained by this 
revelation of the great fact of atoriement, ^^The good- 
ness of God leadeth to repentance.^^ This cry of 
being forsaken confessed and published the complete- 
ness of His atoning offering and that "He is able to 
save to the uttermost all who come unto God by 
Him.'' 

This act of atonement which publishes the divine 
love for sinners at the same time stigmatizes sin as 
wholly under the ban of God; and, however holy 
the atoning sufferer, and however great his faith and 
love toward God, if he would make a complete offer- 
ing he must be conscious of his complete sacrifice 
of divine sympathy. Then the sinner, however deeply 
sunken in sin, yet seeking salvation, can feel as- 
sured of such salvation as he casts himself upon divine 
mercy, saying, ''I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ/' 

The prayer of the true penitent virtually says: 
^^Defiled by my sin I can not feel nor can my limited 
reason estimate the measure of my offense as known 
to a perfectly sinless and wise Being; hence Christ, 
who in perfect innocence and entire holiness yielded 
Himself to know and feel and acknowledge, for me, 
the full measure and intensity of sin's turpitude, 
as God knows and abhors it, and suffered the agony 
and death which this consciousness inflicted — is my 
offering to God by which I acknowledge the enormity 



SEEMOITS. 



267 



of my sin as God knows it, and I take and trust 
the merciful opportunity to repent which His sacri- 
fice has honored, as a gracious favor from Almighty 
God. Hence my unreserved confession, ''I believe 
on the Lord Jesus Christ/' 

Thus viewing Jesus as the Lamb of God, a sacri- 
fice because wholly innocent, a sufficient sacrifice be- 
cause rendered fully conscious of the divine conscious- 
ness of the ill-desert of sin, I see why He died of 
mental anguish, and finished the atoning offering un- 
conscious of divine sympathy. As the quivering vic- 
tim upon the altar of God^s absolute aversion to sin, 
He evinced the completeness of His offering by the 
cry,"Why hast Thou forsaken Me?'' This is the 
end of sacrifice. There is no more offering for sin 
before God. ^^I will have mercy and not sacrifice.'' 
God's uncompromising stigma thus, once for all, 
fixed upon sin has opened to all who will acknowl- 
edge Christ the boundless range of God's saving 
grace. 

lY. The corroboration to men of the atoning 
character of Jesus' death is evinced by His resur- 
rection. Had He not risen as He said He would, 
men might argue His suffering as a matter of chas- 
tisement for His faults or of helpless subjection to 
His enemies. But He had said, "1 lay down My life 
of Myself; I have power to lay it down and I have 
power to take it up again ;" and as He arose the third 
day unimpaired in moral purity and with increased 



268 MEMOIES AKD SEEMONS. 



power. His death appears to all as neither subjection 
to His enemies nor chastisement for faults. His 
apparently boastful rebuff to Pontius Pilate, ^^Thou 
wouldst have no power against Me, except it were 
given thee from above/^ proved a plain statement 
which regarded whatever Pilate might do would be 
a merely divinely permitted incident to the great 
sacrificial event about to be enacted in His death 
and resurrection. ^^He was delivered for our of- 
fenses and raised again^^ to justify our claim to 
salvation by virtue of His atonement for us. 

Further corroboration of the atoning nature of 
His death appears in the experience of believers. 
Prior to His crucifixion Jesus had taught His dis- 
ciples that it was expedient for them that He should 
"go away^^ in order that their faith in Him might 
be a more spiritual perception of their relation to 
Him, and through Him to the Father, and of their 
personal salvation. This, in order that the "promise 
of the Father^^ might be realized which He had given 
the prophets, to-wit: that He would give a second 
writing of the law, not, as at first, on tables of stone, 
but by putting in the hearts of His people a spiritual 
sentiment which would dispose them to observe and 
give them power to keep the law ; the law of authority 
now to become the law of spontaneity. This indwell- 
ing sentiment or spontaneity for righteousness Jesus 
had compared to a "well of water,^^ springing up 
within them, had termed it "the new heart,^^ "the 



SEEMONS. 



269 



Spirit of truth/^ the Comforter ; and after His resur- 
rection He reiterated His teachings as ^Hhe promise 
of the Father/^ ^^the enduement with power from on 
high/^ And He taught them to pray for it in His 
name, and that in His name the Father would answer 
their prayer. Accordingly the disciples, after His 
ascension, continued their daily assemblage for prayer 
in Jerusalem. And on the day of Pentecost, amid 
wondrous demonstrations which attracted a multitude, 
they received and declared the answer to their prayers 
in Christ's name. Filled with a new-born enthusi- 
asm they continued to testify, not only to His resur- 
rection, but also the remission of their sins and spir- 
itual baptism ^^shed forth'' in the name and merit 
of their late crucified and risen Lord. 

Thus prophetic promise, gospel teaching, aton- 
ing merit, post-resurrection assurance, and the prayer 
of faith in His atoning sacrifice were demonstrated 
by a spiritual response which inspired His disciples, 
even in martyrdom, amazed the multitudes, con- 
founded unbelievers, and is transforming the civili- 
zation of the world. 



270 MEMOIES AKD SEEMONS. 



THE GEEAT CO-PAETNEESHIP. 

Wherefore let no one glory in- men. For all tilings 
are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, 
or the world, or life, or death, or things present, 
or things to come; all are yours; and ye are 
Christ's; and Christ is God's.— 1 Cor. 3:-21-23. 

Perhaps there is no better way to correct an over- 
estimate of men and things than to fix attention upon 
the grand generic realities from which all specific 
interests derive their value. Partisan narrowness of 
both thought and feeling robs us of the larger wealth 
which comes of discerning intrinsic worth in its larger 
modes and wherever found. Partisan divisions and 
ambitious strifes which had sprung up in the Apos- 
tolic Churches met with this manner of rebuke from 
St. Paul, which turned upon their factional glory- 
ings such a burst of God^s infinite meaning for them 
as exposed their shallow misconceptions and the ab- 
ject littleness of their partisan rivalries. With one 
grand swoop He seemed to grasp the whole Church, 
shate and lift and stand it in the center of uni- 
versal truth, that its every member might see the 
boundless resources of His own inalienable wealth. 
Wherefore, he implies, let no one be so small as to 
glory in certain men, for all are yours, and ye are 
Christ's, and Christ is God's* 



SERMONS. 



371 



That we may get a good, practical hold of this 
text we will ask, and attempt to answer: 

First — ^What is the essential meaning of this 
world and all its life? 

Secondly — What relation do all persons and things 
hold to this meaning? 

As to the first question there seems to have been 
among thoughtful people in all ages a curious but 
solemn query which in effect said, Whence? Why? 
Whither? Although all felt in their dependence 
there must be an independent cause, the more puz- 
zling question loomed up, namely, what manner of 
cause is it? Is it fate or force or God? If a God, 
what kind of a God is He — benevolent, malevolent, 
or indifferent? As there are good and ill in ap- 
parent conflict, are there two supreme beings — one 
good, the other evil — ever at war? And thus, on 
and on, through endless, helpless wanderings, have 
men groped until in our own day some, like Haeckel, 
claim to have found the origin of the universe in 
the most helpless and dependent thing in it, dead 
matter. But that a dependent world could emerge 
from lifeless matter confuses and confounds thought, 
and finds nothing in life to make it of more worth 
than a hoboes dream. Thus the learning and wisdom 
of men, unaided by revelation, have been able to 
meet these deepest queries of the soul with little that 
is better than the wildest vagaries. The cry of 



272 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



human nature in its best mood is well expressed by 
a great poet : 

0, Thou Eternal One, whose presence bright, 
All space doth occupy, all motion guide. 

Unchanged through timers all-devastating flight, 
Thou only God! there is no God beside. 

Being above all beings ! might one 

Whom none can comprehend, and none explore. 

Being whom we call God, but know no more.'' 

But light breaks in upon us when we turn to 
the Bible. iSTor need we all its luminous power. One 
passage is suflBcient^ and that the very brief dis- 
closure^ ^^God is love.^^ At once the center of our 
intelligence is touched and blazes with these radiant 
reflections: ^^A loving nature yearns for objects to 
love;^^ '^^Objects that can perceive and feel His love;'^ 
^^^Objects that can and may love Him in return.^^ 
Therefore^ He created us as the objects; persons^ 
beings imaging in their formal^ finite nature His 
infinite, ineffable traits and powers ; beings who, learn- 
ing, appreciating, enjoying His love, become like 
Him, and in ever enlarging capacity and power may 
rejoice in Hia companionship for evermore. As love 
is the nature of God, love explains the meaning, the 
purpose of the universe. 

To exploit the resources of infinite love and truth 
in companionship with a universe of finite persons 
who, by learning, loving, communing, and co-acting 
with their Creator, shall share the good of His be- 



t 



SEEMONS. 273 

ing forever — this is the essential meaning of the 
world and all its life, and answers the question, 
"Whence r 

Second — As to the second question, "What rela- 
tion do all personal beings hold to this meaning 
As life is the source of action, and action is reality, 
and perfectly adjusted action is love, love is the 
infinite asset of the world. 

l^ow then, the object of the universe appears an 
effort to establish a universe of persons devoted to 
determining all there is in genuine love as a force, 
directed by infinite wisdom to the achievement of the 
richest modes of life which may be determined by 
harmonious interaction with God and each other. 
In other words, God has invested in a universe de- 
voted to the practical working out of ideal truth— 
the infinite ideal — especially the self-development of 
ideal personal character and ideal society. There is 
nothing conceivable to reason or taught by revela- 
tion that can add interest or value to the world aside 
from perfection of personal life, though many have 
tried it by money and "pleasure.^^ Perfection of life 
is the true, the intrinsic wealth of the world. 

As He is the sole origin of the universe, in God 
is the original title to its possession. It is this pro- 
prietary relation to all values, singly and as a whole, 
that is the burden of this text. This divine invest- 
ment of love, seeking its richest development in per- 
sonal life, having been determined upon, the next 

18 



274 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



thing xor us to note is the divine method of realizing 
— ^not for His, but our enrichment — ^upon His in- 
vestment. 

This the apostle represents as the essential value 
of existence. As love is its own reward, its exploita- 
tion is the swmmum honum, the chief good. God is 
the infinite source of this wealth, and the creation 
of a universe of persons is His establishment of a 
co-partnership by which to share with finite beings 
the good, the infinite wealth which accrues by their 
joining Him in realizing upon this exhaustless in- 
vestment. 

Without stopping to note each special step in the 
process of realization, we specify first. The Christ. 
We find Him in human history its most masterful 
factor. He spake of Himself sometimes as of a 
Man and sometimes as of a God: one who existed 
^^Dcfore the world was.^^ The prophets who foretold 
His coming declared also His double nature; and 
the apostles who were with Him and wrote of Him 
after His departure made record of both His human 
and divine nature, actions, and professions. His wis- 
dom and power amazed, and His moral rectitude over- 
awed friend and foe. But these were only incidents 
of His great mission. His main purpose was to do 
the will of His Divine Father; that is, to be in act, 
thought, word, and character a manifestation of di- 
vine love in this perverted, selfish world; in a word, 
to show men the true wealth of human life. There 



SEEMONS. 



275 



are those who, when viewing a great masterpiece of 
the painter's art, see nothing of interest in it; but 
a few, who study it until they see the great central 
and all-pervading thought of the artist, now see that 
the very size and quality of the canvas, every tint 
and shading in the background, all proportion and 
perspective, every trace of the brush, indeed, are 
luminous with and expressive of the author's great, 
central, life-giving idea. 

So also in preparing the material world as the 
canvas, its scenes, its pleasures, pains, industries, 
ambitions ; social, political, commercial, domestic, and 
individual life; its history, literature, art, and en- 
terprise are all poor, perplexing, disappointing dis- 
harmonies until Christ appears and shows men the 
great central thought of God in all His creative and 
providential activities and in all the wisdom, work, 
and worth of Christ's mission, namely, the manifesta- 
tion and effort of divine love for the recovery of 
our race. And men have come to see that if this 
be taken away the picture of human life is blurred, 
its meaning lost. 

Had Christ heeded the tempter, who said, in ef- 
fect: "I lead a rival enterprise. I hold there is 
greater power and pleasure in selfishness than in love. 
Men believe me and all are following me. All the 
kingdoms of the earth are ruled by selfishness. Turn 
away from God's project of a universe to be con- 
trolled by love. Take me for your Deity; fall down 



276 MEMOIES Al^D SEEMON-S. 



and worship me; be my representative and I will 
turn over all these kingdoms to your rule. With 
selfishness as law your wonder-working power will 
easily hold the scepter of the world/^ Some have 
held it impossible that Jesus could have yielded to 
this temptation; but if so^ it seems impossible to 
regard it as a temptation at all. 

Suppose Jesus had yielded; abandoned His great 
mission of showing forth in His life, death, and 
resurrection the love of God for the world, what then ? 
As a Messiah, a Christ, He would have been a fail- 
ure; the Father must have disowned Him, and it 
could never have been said of Him, as in this text, 
"Christ is Grod^s.^^ His co-partnership with God 
Avould have been forfeited and lost. But, unlike the 
first Adam, He did not yield, but defeated the 
tempter. ]^ow, Jesus having undertaken to be a 
human manifestation of the divine nature, and 
proceeding to set in motion the work of realizing 
upon God's investment in a love-created universe, 
organized His Church to carry forward the ma- 
jestic realization of what is to be the world's im- 
perishable fortune. That is to say, a Church 
whose wealth is the possession and operation of 
Christian love in the life, the eternal life of man- 
kind. Thus the object of the Church is to enlarge 
this great co-partnership and put mankind in pos- 
session of unfailing riches. 

If a Church neglects to make the effort to extend 



SEEMONS. 



277 



the domain of Christian love among men, but gathers 
itself into a self-complacent social club^ it forfeits 
its title to a place in this great co-partnership ; ceases 
to be a truly Christian Church. Christ will^ unless 
that Church repent and '^^do its first works/^ disown 
it. It can not be said of that Church, *^^Ye are 
Christ^s/' 

So also of individual Christians. When men cher- 
ish a partisan or selfish regard for certain ministers 
and break up into factional devotement to indi- 
vidual leaders in the Churchy sayings I am of Paul, 
or I am of ApoUos, or I am of Cephas, they lose 
the very object of their admiration, and their favorite 
preacher becomes a source of self-complacent boasting, 
instead of a helper to their becoming brighter and 
better manifestations of divine love. Others who hear 
these ministers prayerfully seek to have their love of 
God, Christlike unselfishness, deepened and broadened 
in their hearts that they may be better manifestations 
of Christian love among men. These can say, ^^Now, 
that sermon is mine.^^ And so, whether they hear 
the logic of Paul, the eloquence of ApoUos, or the 
hortatory power of Peter, they can say, ^^All are 
mine.^^ And thus of all our learning and all our 
opportunities to improve in mind and heart the ob- 
ject s-hould be to amplify the life of love in our souls. 

When members or ministers appropriate their 
Church relation as chiefly an asset for selfish ad- 
vantage, socially, commercially, or politically, and 



278 MEMOIES AKD SERMONS. 



only incidentally interest themselves in saving souls, 
or cease to express the love of Christ in their lives 
and influence among men, they lose the tenure of 
their co-partnership, cease to be of Christ, Christ 
must disown them. It can not be said of them, ^^Ye 
are Chrisf s.^^ 

We must briefly indicate the application of this 
great truth to the material things with which we 
have to do. We have our houses, our business, our 
money, more or less, which we call our own; and in 
civil law they are relatively ours, but we must soon 
leave them. If we have used them selfishly they are 
wholly lost, and with the selfish characters we have 
built up within us we go to our final account bank- 
rupt. 

Here is a man who holds a large and beautiful 
estate. His home is a mansion, his grounds are 
lovely with lawns and trees and flowers; his broad 
acres are rich with spacious meadows and waving 
harvests. He says he owns it; and by civil law he 
does. But his selfish soul grips its products with 
miserly motive. He spurns the poor, perhaps op- 
presses the hireling; his greed troubles his house- 
hold, or perhaps besots them with luxurious living. 
He thinks he is the absolute owner of this estate, 
but in fact, the estate owns him. He is its slave, its 
victim. It wears him out as it wears out its plows 
and harrows and teams, and at last he dies, to receive 
from it only a place for his body to crumble into dust. 



SEEMONS. 



279 



He has nothing to show for his lifework but a nar- 
row, selfish character in the future world ; a shriveled 
pauper, a bankrupt, world without end. 

All this while across the way has lived a poor 
artisan or laborer in a humble cottage. He has looked 
upon this fine estate, not with covetous eyes, but 
glowing appreciation of its beauties, and it has re- 
fined and enriched his taste. He has seen, too, the 
goodness of God in its natural loveliness, its wealth 
of harvests and herds, and his soul has grown thank- 
ful and liberal. He has observed the patient mercy 
of God toward its ungrateful, selfish proprietor, and 
has deepened his own soul in likeness to his Heavenly 
Father. Moreover, in his love of God he has even 
loved and prayed for his ungrateful neighbor. Aye, 
he has become the real owner of that fine estate. 
It has exercised him in godliness a thousand ways, 
and this enrichment of soul has made him a blessing 
to all about him; and through all eternity he will 
be a richer and brighter impersonation of unselfish. 
Godlike love for having beheld his neighbor's es- 
tate through truly Christian eyes. 

Thus in all modes of legitimate opportunity and 
activity, if men have handled their resources unself- 
ishly, that is, with conscientious regard to making and 
distributing as before God, their property or business 
becomes a method of exercise, and manifestation of 
that unselfishness which is identical with divine love. 
Its effect upon the owner enriches his life and char- 



280 MEMOIES AXD SBEMONS. 



acter, and, although he spends it or ultimately leaves 
it at death, his enriched character bears all that is 
essentially valuable in that wealth with him to the 
better country. He knows as a fact the apostle's state- 
ment, ^'^All things are yours/' Thus by the imperish- 
able title of Christian love the genuine Christian 
whose master motive is to make all things with which 
he has to do bear the impress of Christian love and 
tell for the extension of Christian love in the world, 
can saj^ all things are mine, and I am Christ's, and 
Christ is God's. 

Xot one word or implication of this subject en- 
courages one to believe he belongs to this great co- 
partnership because he distributes to the needy a vast 
fortune which he has gained by selfish or dishonorable 
methods. All the vast making and giving of our day 
can not justify that miserable motto, ^^The end 
justifies the means." As Lady Macbeth despaired to 
wash the blood-spot from her hand, millionaires who 
have dishonestly acquired their wealth may lavish 
their millions on Churches and educational institu- 
tions, but they can not wash from their hands the 
bloodstain of those whose fortunes, rights, and homes 
they have wrecked. 

Our limits repress much that pertains to this 
exposition; hence I but briefly indicate the further 
application of the great truth expressed in the text. 
To all faithful souls we are authorized to say that 
as members of this co-partnership you have invested 



SEEMOXS. 



281 



in an enterprise that looks forward to a time when 
every continent^ ocean, and inhabitated island shall 
be radiant with the activities of this ever-growing 
business. And it is ever yours to experience an en- 
nobling of your inner life as you are faithful to the 
accomplishment of this sublime expectancy. All are 
yours ! 

The world, with all its unfolding of the Creator's 
power and wisdom, with all its revealment of His 
providential rule, all its experience of races and na- 
tions, its history, arts, sciences, enterprises, progress, 
and decay studied and used as the g}TQnasium of 
discipline and field of exploit for the thought and 
activities of man, is yours. 

Life is yours; in all its modes, individual, home, 
social, national, commercial, political, and religious 
life, each and all imprinted with our touch of Chris- 
tian love, becomes a heritage to your children here 
and yields to you that spiritual wealth which renders 
you fit to live forever. 

Death, the king of terrors to the selfish man, but 
your angel of welcome at the gate of life eternal, 
ushers you into the society of the ^'Overcomers.^^ 

Things present, whether big with opportunity or 
galling with hardship, self-denial, and poverty ; radi- 
ant with honors and delights, or dark and bitter with 
oppressions and persecutions, but all full of discipline 
to the soul that enjoys or endures with Christlike 
humility and patience — all are yours. 



282 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



Things to come: The trimnph of righteousness, 
the dissolution of worlds, the great white throne, 
the crowning of saints, the sinless life in a sinless 
world, the glorious company of the blood-washed, the 
faithful over a few things and rulers over many. 
Things to come: The on-coming ages, the ever ex- 
panding splendors of thrilling enterprise, the ever 
enlarging ennoblement of redeemed souls, the bound- 
less resources of ^^dual love's great mytery'' ever call- 
ing you on to the yet greater wealth of things to 
come; ^^All are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ 
is God's/' 

AMBITION. 
Text: 

They that are wise shall shine as the brightness of 
the firmament; and they that turn many to right- 
eousness as the stars for ever and ever. — Dan. 
12:3. 

To Daniel^ the statesman-seer, it was given to fore- 
see and in a measure foretell the vast evolution of 
world-wide political and social forces. Himself a 
remnant of a wrecked civilization, he stood steadfast 
and sublime amid its broken fragments while every- 
where a vaunting, idolatrous civilization ground them 
into the dust. Firm in devotion to his God who, he 
said, ^^keepeth covenant and mercy," he had faced 
Nebuchadnezzar, the head of all-conquering idolatry, 



SEEMOITS. 



283 



and in the riddle of that monarches dream traced 
the plans of that God in whose hand all nations are 
held. He read the nniyersal power, splendor, and 
ruin of four consecutive idolatrous empires, and the 
rise of a fifth that should destroy idolatry and fill 
the world with the dominion of the God of heaven. 

From this mountain-top of divine vision this 
dauntless statesman sought further — more explicit, 
more specific — disclosure of the plans of Divine Provi- 
dence and the fortunes of the covenant people. His 
prayers were answered, and so strikingly has history 
corroborated his predictions and current progress con- 
tinued their fulfillment that in this last glorious pre- 
diction given in our text our confidence is reassured. 

The pivotal word upon which the meaning of this 
text is poised is the word shine. It refers to the 
social make-up of the heavenly world, and indicates 
that luster of character which will be the basis of good 
standing in that delightful community. It appeals 
to our social nature, also to our love of approval, and 
especially to our natural desire to excel. 

I. This is an appeal to ambition. Possibly you 
may ask: ^^Is it not ambition that has proven the 
world^s greatest scourge? Has it not blotted every 
page of human history with crime and blood? Has 
it not rolled the conqueror^s chariot-wheels over the 
dying and dead, nourished his laurels with the tears 
of widows and orphans, and filled the world with op- 
pression? Was it not T)y that sin the angels fell?' 



284 MEMOIES AKD SEEMONS. 



Does not the poet Milton rightly express the essence 
of its creed when he has Satan declare it ^Better to 
reign in hell than serve in heaven T Yes^ em- 
phatically yes ? All this and more is true ; yet I affirm, 
ambition is a blessing! But, like all our blessings, 
it is turned into a curse by man^s perversion of it; 
and the greater the blessing, if perverted, becomes the 
greater curse. He who gave us being, the soil, sun- 
shine and shower, food and gladness, strength of body 
and mind, intended them as blessings in their right 
use, but by our abuse we have defiled ourselves, viti- 
ated our conditions, and cursed our race. Even the 
atoning sacrifice of Christ, at least one of our greatest 
blessings, intended as a remedy for our vast self- 
perversions, intended to lift us to the ranks of saints 
made perfect, will by our abuse of its mercies sink 
us below the condemnation of Sodom. 

So it is with ambition. It is a divinely implanted 
principle. Children on their playgrounds innocently 
delight to excel in feats of strength and activity. It 
inspires men to rise above their discouragements and 
to cleave their way through hardship and opposition. 
Difficulties are but wind and chaff before them. Am- 
bition is the talisman of progress, the angel of char- 
acter, and a pillar of flame to the leadership of men 
and nations. Sacredly held and used as a gift from 
God it wins and builds and blesses everywhere. 

Perversions of ambition are practiced in many 
ways; far too many to be mentioned here. But the 



SEEMOJ^S. 



285 



one grand perversion which is the root of all is in 
setting aside the Creator's plan of life and destiny 
and adopting a small and mean scheme of onr own 
make. As the life of the oak is folded up in the 
acorn and only awaits its opportunity to push itself 
out to full growth and glory^ so the inner life of 
man is planned by the Creator to find its growth and 
glory in self-improvement. Strong and lustrous self- 
realization is the true, the holy ambition. This plan 
stands out self-approved in the following facts, to-wit : 

1. It accords with innocent self-love. 

2. It results in the best, cleanest, strongest, and 
happiest personal character. 

3. It does not clash with like ambitions in others. 

4. Personal character is the only acquisition we 
take with us into the future world. 

5. Inasmuch as forming character is still going 
on in the last sane moment of life in this world, this 
process of self-realization argues immortality or con- 
tinuance of life in which the outcome of true char- 
acter may be realized and rewarded. 

6. This reveals the Creator^s plan, assigning us 
this life as the arena of effort and the life to come as 
the era of character-results, as a reward or achieve- 
ment of our faith-based ambition. We are built for 
two worlds — this the world of ambitious struggle; to 
be, to do, or endure the hard grind of lowly toil or 
the larger and more conspicuous care, effort, and re- 
sponsibility or perhaps greater achievement or honor- 



286 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



able defeat. The next is the eternal harvest of re- 
sults. 

Ignoring, perhaps rejecting, this divine plan of 
the nature and purpose of our being, men have sought 
by might and main to grasp the reward of their am- 
bition in this world. They have sought to satisfy 
themselves with possessing the mere means and in- 
struments in the use of which their characters were 
to be wrought out. Whether gain or power or pleas- 
ure has been their chief aim, they have sinned against 
God and spumed the rights of their fellow-men. In 
a word they have made ambition the special min- 
ister of selfishness, the agent in chief of oppression, 
and the grand curse of human history. 

Let us turn now more explicitly to the Creator^s 
plan of man and his real interests. We shall find 
ample scope for the noblest as well as most righteous 
ambition. To this our text appeals, pointing out the 
field of effort and the consequent reward. The 
prophecy and progress of the ages tend toward an 
ultimately perfect social life. And the Christ-force 
in history constantly presses toward its complete 
realization. Any form of religious culture which 
does not prepare its subjects for that society mis- 
conceives religion and is utterly at fault. 

We are not only social beings, but have a natural 
and worthy desire to stand well in society, in the 
esteem of our neighbors. We seek to educate and 
train our children that they shall be respected in the 



SEKMONS. 



287 



community in which they live. Here where there ia 
so much in society that is stupid, shallow, false, de- 
ceitful, and corrupt, even here we desire that we and 
our children shall have good standing. It is for 
society in this world that the proverb says, ^^A good 
name is better than great riches.^^ Then, how much 
more to be desired is it to attain such personal ex- 
cellence as will entitle us to good standing where 
there is nothing false nor corrupt? It will not be 
asked there whether we have ever been clad in robes 
or rags. Who have been our ancestors will be of 
no interest ; whether we can trace our lineage through 
a long genealogy, or have been waifs cast up on the 
social strand of ill-repute. Nor can the temporal in- 
cidents of nationality, color, or caste determine our 
social rank among the immortals. 

There all must be genuine, and genuineness must 
be of the heart. A veneering of morals and manners 
can be no substitute for character. Neither learning, 
oflBce, power, repute, nor distinction, though useful 
implements in this world^s work, can avail anything 
there. ! and Ah ! and religious ejaculations will 
not pass there for godliness; nor self-conscious giv- 
ing to humane or religious institutions outrank the 
widows^ mites or the rags and sores of Lazarus. The 
faith that prompts to liberality will shine steady and 
brilliant through the little that is kept, rather than 
through the abundance given. What a glorious social 
life that will be where all will stand according to 



288 MEMOIRS AND SEEMONS. 



the estimate made by the Searcher of hearts ; and 
what a glorious opportunity to attain good standing 
without detriment to any other ! 

II. Types of a true ambition, as taught in the 
Bible, are mainly two, wisdom and virtue. The term 
wisdom is often used in a general way in the sense 
of knowledge, information intellectually acquired. 
But more strictly and correctly, wisdom is that 
equable poise of the soul that fits it to use its powers 
and acquired knowledge to the best advantage. A 
writer on definitions in philosophy says, ^^Wisdom is 
the right use or exercise of knowledge, and differs 
from knowledge as the use that is made of a power 
or faculty differs from the power or faculty itself.^^ 
(Fleming's "Vocabulary of Philosophy/' Krauth's 
Ed.) "The tongue of the wise useth knowledge 
aright.^^ (Prov. 15 : 2.) That right-heartedness which 
gives the power or poise by which best to use faculties 
or knowledge is the essence of wisdom. Hence, in 
the strictest sense, it is a heart quality rather than 
a head quality, although its informing power to the 
head is its chief office. It promotes what we term 
insight, prudence, wise practical judgment, or "sound 
understanding.^^ 

In this sense it is frequently used in the Bible. 
Inasmuch as the ground of character is in these feel- 
ings termed the heart, the Bible speaks of fools as 
those of perverted heart, both as to its perverted state 
and its influence upon the mind and conduct. For 



SEEMOXS. 



289 



example, ^Tools make a mock at sin.'^ ^^The fool 
hath said in his heart, There is no God/^ ^^It is 
sport to a fool to do mischief/^ ^^herefore is there 
a price in the hand of a fool to buy wisdom, seeing 
he hath no heart to it/^ *^'The heart of fools is in 
the house of mirth/' ^^The wise shall inherit glory, 
but shame shall be the promotion of fools/^ ^^When 
thou vowest a tow unto God defer not to pay it; for 
He hath no pleasure in fools/^ ^^Every wise woman 
buildeth her house, but the foolish plucketh it down 
with her own hands/^ 

Eight-heartedness is wisdom. ^The fear of the 
Lord is the beginning of wisdom/' "So teach us 
to number our days that we may apply our hearts 
unto wisdom/' "For wisdom shall enter into thy 
heart,^^ etc. 

Under Christian teaching wisdom is equally em- 
phasized as a state of heart, a right order of one's 
affections, a moral quality. Jesus is represented in 
His moral purity as "filled with wisdom." The self- 
complacent man who said to himself, "Soul, take 
thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry" — "thou hast 
much goods laid up for many years," Christ de- 
nounced as a fool. St. Paul also declares his labor 
for the Church is that its members might be filled 
with "all spiritual wisdom and understanding." And 
he says, ^TL-et the word of Christ dwell in you richly 
in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one an- 
other." Of the besotted, idolatrous world he says, 

19 



290 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



"Their foolish heart was darkened/^ St. James 
writes, "If any lack wisdom, let him ask of God who 
giveth to all liberally and upbraideth not/^ "The 
wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peace- 
able, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and 
good fruits, without variance, without hypocrisy/^ — 
all heart qualities. 

In all these Scripture?, that state of heart which 
is in harmony with the will of God is taught as the 
base upon which arises true feeling and gives one 
the best use of his powers of heart, head, and hand. 
When we remember that the heart is the standpoint 
from which the head acts, we can clearly see that 
the pure in heart are in the best position to perceive 
the fact, the love, and the will of God. The sur- 
veyor, whom you employ to locate the boundaries and 
calculate the area of your lands, seeks first "the 
corner'^ of the original survey as the right "stand- 
point,^^ as he terms it, at which to place his com- 
pass. From this point he projects the lines and 
measurements of his survey. If he has erred in this 
placement of the compass, taken a wrong standpoint, 
the entire survey, field notes, and calculations are 
vitiated, wrong, and worthless. Hence the supreme 
requisite to a wise and valid survey is the right stand- 
point. As the heart is the standpoint from which 
the head thinks, purposes, and plans, wise-hearted- 
ness is the supreme requisite to a wise and right 
life. Therefore the grand essential to character and 
practice is to find that rightness of heart in the 



SEEMONS. 



291 



^^original survey^^ which Christ pointed out when He 
showed His followers the necessity of their return 
to childlike innocence as the standpoint from which 
alone they could project a character which would 
secure admission to the Kingdom of heaven. 

That vicious self-complacence, termed in the 
Scriptures ungodliness and folly, now generally called 
selfishness, is that perversion of the feelings of the 
heart which is the basis of all folly, as obedience to 
God is the beginning of wisdom. 

Take that least criminal form of selfishness known 
as egotism or inordinate self-esteem as an example 
of the foolish heart. One possessed of this, no matter 
what his talents, learning, or comely appearance, be- 
comes a laughing-stock, an object of derision. In 
matters of importance he brings defeat if not disaster 
to himself and those whom his action affects. He 
is like a man surveying the heavens with his telescope 
inverted, himself in front of the great object glass, 
and the little eye-glass turned heavenward, with the 
result that sun, moon, and stars, if he can see them 
at all, appear much smaller than himself. Possibly 
he would denounce astronomy as having ^^nothing in 
it.^^ Selfishness is but the inverted telescope trick 
in every respect, physical and spiritual ; the fool heart 
that exaggerates self and belittles or denies God. In 
a word, the whole man and his daily activities depend 
for their best use upon that transparent moral quality 
of the heart which is the birthplace of pure motives. 

In the text these right-hearted are designated the 



293 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



wise. It is the primary move of a great ambition. 
Its initial step for the sinner is repentance which 
seeks to return to childhood innocence which is bom 
from above. When settling a question of ambition 
that had arisen among His disciples, Christ took a 
child and set him in their midst and said, "Except 
ye repent and become as little children, ye shall in 
no wise enter into the Kingdom of heaven/^ Who- 
soever therefore shall humble himself as this little 
child, the same is the greatest in the Kingdom of 
heaven.^^ Whether it be the moral purity of child- 
hood innocence or the tranquil innocence of a re- 
pentant sinner "born again/^ it is "the wisdom that 
Cometh from above/^ to regain which, Christ declared, 
is a higher and better ambition than any that covets 
the earthly rewards of pleasure or power. These 
innocent ones, born from above in heart purity or 
born again into heart purity, are the wise who, it 
was revealed to Daniel, shall shine as the brightness 
of the firmament, 

III. While this type of character termed the wise, 
radiated from the innocent or the purified heart, may 
gladden the translated child or lift the regenerated 
convert above earthly distinction, there is yet some- 
thing better to be achieved." It offers a field for a yet 
higher ambition. It is termed in a general way, 
VIRTUE. If not better, then it were well for us to 
die in childhood innocence; or when in the first joy 
of the new convert's consciousness of a "change of 



SERMONS. 



293 



heart/' But the fact that we are permitted to grow 
up, the fact that we are permitted to continue in 
this world after we rise forgiven and renewed by ^^the 
washing of regeneration and the renewing of the 
Holy Spirit, implies that God has planned a work 
for us to do/' Work, not for His benefit, but ours; 
work which will develop our character beyond that 
renewed state of heart which is the ^T^eginning of 
wisdom/' To have the wisdom of right-heartedness 
is a great point regained, but to be strong in the 
positive virtue developed from purity of heart is a 
greater thing; as the oak is greater than the acorn. 
This comes by exercise in heart wisdom. This is being 
^^exercised unto godliness." Heart wisdom is essential 
to repel evil thoughts and to cherish good thoughts 
and form pure intentions ; so that the "thoughts and 
intents of the heart" may be pure. Prayerfully prac- 
ticing pure intentions builds up pure character, and 
the soul acquires positive strength and growth in 
righteousness. 

Virtue is a word which has been used to express 
various shades of meaning. Its original meaning in 
the Greek and Latin tongues seems to have been 
simply strength, power. "Virtue, then, implies oppo- 
sition or struggle. In man the struggle is between 
reason and passion, between right and wrong. To 
hold by the former is virtue, to yield to the latter 
is vice." (Fleming & Krauth, "Vocabulary of Philos- 
ophy.") Somewhat in the sense of power was Christ's 



294 MEMOIRS AND SERMONS. 



consciousness that "virtue had gone out of him/' 
in the healing of one who had touched the hem of 
His garment. Growth into positive spiritual strength 
seems admirably stated by St. Peter: "Giving all 
diligence, add to your faith virtue (strength) ; and 
to strength knowledge ; and to knowledge self-control ; 
and to self-control, patience; and to patience, godli- 
ness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to 
brotherly kindness, love.^^ 

All our doing in daily life affords opportunity 
for such exercise and thus builds up a Christlike 
character. It habituates the mind to moral discrim- 
ination and exercises the will and habituates it to 
righteous decision and purpose; establishes in the 
feelings a positive aversion to evil and affection for 
the good, and thus begets an abhorrence of the former 
and love of the latter. Eaith strengthens into a 
steadfast subjection of the practical to the spiritual 
life. Hope becomes a fixed habit of progress toward 
complete self-conquest and its crown, and love of 
God and man becomes the ruling motive of the soul. 
This is godliness, and these three, faith, hope, and 
love, are the main virtues it comprehends. Thus 
the soul is confirmed in steadfast adherence to well- 
doing and against temptation to evil. 

An athlete has once been but a babe of tender 
and feeble though healthful and well-organized 
physical system. If he had always been kept in 
the house, never permitted to enjoy outdoor air and 



SEEMONS. 



295 



exercise, he would never have become the athlete he 
is, but like a tender house-plant, vrould scarcely have 
grown up; and, if attaining manhood, would have 
been a weakling, easily susceptible to disease or 
breaking down under but slight hardship. Many 
religious people in like manner become spiritual weak- 
lings. Having known heart renewing by repentance 
and faith, they have, instead of seeking to know their 
duty, shirked it; rather than bear the responsibility, 
have sought excuse from it, and thus have failed to 
become strong Christian characters. Occasionally, 
of course, they have been ^Vanned up'' during a 
^^revival/' only to lapse again into unfaithfulness. 
Like some of our early frontier settlers who com- 
plained fifty or sixty years ago that this State was 
getting too thickly settled, and like the buffalo and 
beaver, retired before civilization. They had lived 
by hunting and trapping and fishing, built their 
cabins in the ^^timber,'' and after getting a little 
money for pelts or venison or the like, bought a small 
stock of provisions which included a supply of whisky, 
and then had a hilarious spree until the whisky was 
done. They never had a serious thought of subduing 
these lands and building up this splendid State. So 
also the religious folk here referred to in revival 
season take a religious spree, without apparent thought 
of building up the Church of Grod as a power among 
men to turn many to righteousness. Their life record 
could be written up in less than one sentence : ^^Sin- 



296 MEMOIES AND SEEMONS. 



ning and repenting^ sinning and repenting^ sinning 
and repenting;'^ and so on with no hope except that 
possibly they may find at last a deathbed repentance 
by which they may, peradventure, be saved. Better 
had they died in childhood or when first converted, 
before scarring their souls with their many back- 
slidings. 

This inner result could in every case be prevented 
by an objective life devoted to a true ambition — an 
ambition not only to hold fast his renewed heart 
by sending the life-blood of its pure thoughts and in- 
tents through all his desires, motives, and purposes, 
but to make his daily life tend to the salvation of 
his fellow-men. This is exercising himself in the 
motives, aims, and love of God. This is the main 
gist of Christian work, the amassing of virtue. 

The text points out the grand object of work, 
^Hurning many to righteousness.^^ This does not 
mean we must all be prea<3hers, nor that all preachers 
must be evangelists. But it does mean that all work 
and all play should in some way harmonize with 
righteousness; and that the whole world's greatest 
work is to get into guileless harmony by being recon- 
ciled to God. The betterment of humanity, the benefi- 
cence of all industry, study, and enterprise should in 
some way result from all labor and be the Inspiring 
motive with all who sincerely hold the Fatherhood 
of God and the. brotherhood of man. However humble 
his employment, however small his opportunities or 



SEEMONS. 



297 



powers, one has scope for an exalted ambition in 
doing this work conscientiously, righteously as nnto 
God. His humble capacity does not belittle the value 
of his work, for faithfulness is what tells in forming 
character, and it him to have good standing among 
the immortals. As a small cup may be just as full 
as a tub or hogshead, the faithful man of small 
capacity or opportunity may be just as faithful as 
his brother of large opportunities and mighty powers. 
The head can not say to the foot, I have no need 
of thee, for the strong foot lends power to the whole 
body such as the head can not. Faithfulness in each 
member is needed to realize its full power for pro- 
moting righteousness and the general good. Each 
member of the Church or community thus faithful 
renders both Church and society more powerful and 
must be counted one of those who turn many to 
righteousness. 

The luster of character, the reward gained by these 
two types of ambitious ones, the wise and the virtuous, 
is now to be considered. They are distinct, and each 
is attained by an ambition which regards this life 
as an arena, or school of endeavor; not looking for 
its reward here. Each one seeks the goal without 
detriment or hindrance to fellow seekers. They who 
have in the midst of guilt and evil besetment made 
a severe, and perhaps long continued struggle of re- 
pentance and persistent prayer, and have at last 
found peace in a clear conscience and changed af- 



298 MEMOIRS A^B SEEMONS. 



fections, have realized their ambition to "get right" 
with God at all hazards. In this struggle they have 
gained their first complete victory over self and 
over the world, in all the world means to them at 
the time; and relief, before God, from the guilt of 
their past record. They have won a trophy such as 
victory on no other field could bring them, "the peace 
of God which passeth understanding." This is the 
peace which comes with that rightness of heart 
which is the subjection of the natural affections to 
the demands of an awakened conscience. 

King David was a mighty and successful warrior, 
and a great poet. He had been a pious youth, but 
when king became a great sinner, later a great re- 
pent er. In a remarkable poem (Psalm 32) he tells 
of the remorseful struggle through which, confessing 
his sins to Jehovah, he gained forgiveness and a 
pure heart. He begins this poem of conversion with 
this joyous passage: 

** Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, 
Whose sin is covered. 

Blessed is the man to whom Jehovah imputeth not in- 
iquity, 

And in whose spirit there i8 no guile." 

This is the wisdom which is won "from above'^ by 
an ambition that surrenders all, foregoes everything 
for the approval of God in the soul. 

Its reward is in that renovation and luster of 
character which can be fully known and valued only 



SEKMOJfS. 



299 



in sinless society. To be freed from the record, the 
guilt, the love and dominion of sin is the goal of a 
spotless ambition. 

In the social life of that ^T3etter country^^ the wise 
will constitute the commonalty, the mass of the peo- 
ple. No grade of society lower than the pure in 
heart will be found there. Where sin can not enter 
we may be assured of a pure social basis anywhere, 
everywhere, with every one. We shall trust every 
one and be trusted by every one without question. 
Perhaps we have had neighbors in this world of whom 
we said, "What delightful neighbors; we would enjoy 
living beside them always Just such good neigh- 
bors will we have there, living on good terms forever. 
And, by the way, that is the kind of folk we must 
be if we would find a home and feel at home among 
this delightful though common class. 

How incomparably superior is this commonalty 
to any rank attained by selfish, worldly ambition! 
Many men and women of wealth, of might, of genius 
have charmed the world with the brilliancy of their 
achievements, yet have failed in self-conquest; con- 
quered others, but not themselves; possessed estates, 
but not "the pearl of great price ;^^ vied almost with 
seraphs in oratory and song, but have not aspired to 
the moral status of little children who have always 
right of way at court with the King of kings; or 
to the moral standing of the regenerated penitent, 
to possess the Kingdom of heaven within. This is 



300 MEMOIES AND SERMONS. 



the higher, nobler, purer ambition. Not content with 
flesh and blood lineage nor earthly repute, it aspires 
to recognition in the circles of the immaculate. It 
is poised for two worlds, therefore can not be satisfied 
with the ephemeral trophies of this fleeting one. It 
sees and feels the defacement of childhood^s sweet 
innocence by worldly associations, or mourns the con- 
vert^s beguilement from "the simplicity that is in 
Jesus.^^ Turning to God it cries, "I shall be satisfied 
when I awake with Thy likeness.^^ Wearied with 
things that perish in the using, it covets the undim- 
ming soul quality that shall shine as the brightness of 
the firmament. 

But the reward of the virtuous claims our notice. 
Take a view of the strengthened, chastened, ringing 
moral fiber of the soul who has been loyal to righteous- 
ness and to the Church in its world-wide endeavor 
to turn many to righteousness. Look where we will, 
search where we may for exalted character among 
the most distinguished or the most obscure of man- 
kind, but we shall not find it in the external achieve- 
ments, but in the inner motives. It is in the master 
motive — which holds in abeyance, chastens and guides 
the passions and aspirations, molds the intentions, 
and builds the steadfast character; it is this which 
promotes and conserves the strength and glory of the 
highest civilization. These characters which in every 
walk of life are built up by faithful exercise in self- 
denial, devotement to the general good, or the specific 



SEEMONS. 



301 



help and blessing of home^ neighbor, or enemy, though 
reviled, revile not again; though subjected to slights, 
injustice, indignity, these are they who by the luster 
of their inner lives sustain the hope and reflect the 
real glory of human society in this present world. 

We need not cite, for examples, Moses and Samuel 
and Daniel; nor the seven thousand who, amidst 
the popular idolatry of Israel, did not bow the knee 
to Baal; nor even of the millions of Christians who 
suffered the tortures of the three hundred years of 
persecution ; nor the Waldenses and Albigenses, whose 
woes wrung from Milton^s muse the cry, "Avenge, 
Lord, Thy slaughtered saints, whose bones lie scat- 
tered on the Alpine mountains cold!^^ But here at 
home, all around us and every day, are those who 
through much tribulation suffer from the impositions 
and petty tyrannies of society, the greed and dis- 
honesty of business, the neglect and oppression of 
neighbors, and the tortures inflicted by popular vices. 
Moreover, there are those about us whose righteous 
endeavor is filling the world with the knowledge of 
the soul-saving gospel of Christ. In a word: JTot- 
withstanding the wrongs and vices of our day there 
has never been an age in human history when so 
many people were actively engaged, so much money 
expended, or so much labor put forth in doing good 
and winning souls to righteousness as at this present 
time. Although the world is flooded with evil and 
vast schemes of evil-doing seem to prosper, evil men 



302 MEMOIES AND SERMONS. 



and impostors wax worse and worse, yet there are 
those who by patient continuance in well-doing are 
saiturating the world with the knowledge of saving 
grace. They shall shine, not merely as the general 
brightness of the firmament, not as the commonalty 
of heaven. In addition to having attained the wis- 
dom of heart purity, they have amassed positive de- 
velopment of virtuous character, their luster of soul 
will be as fixed bodies of light. They shall shine 
as the stars for ever and ever. 

The resulting character to these two classes of 
ambitious souls fills them with the consciousness that 
it comes of not seeking their reward, but by being 
faithful in their work in this life. They are not 
disappointed if the world does not appreciate, is not 
rich enough to reward their ambition. Neither do 
they expect human talent to record, for they know 
it can not measure the heart strifes nor the outcome 
of character to those who act from infinite motives. 
We look not for the due record of this conquest in 
the annals of earthly fame. We stoop not to wear 
the laurels of the world^s conquerors or kings. We 
covet not the celebrity accorded by orator, poet, or 
historian. Homer and Virgil witched the ages sing- 
ing of the heroes of Greece and Troy. Milton may 
enchant with his wondrous verse of angelic wars. 
Shall we find a record worthy of the overcomers of 
self and the world? Not in marble nor bronze. 
Not in human . literature. Not in orator's tongue. 



SEEMONS. 



303 



poet^s pen, painter's pencil, nor sculptor's chisel. 
Would you read the glorious record of the genuinely 
wise and faithful, then go forth and gaze upon the 
starry heavens, — 

Where the planets map the fields of space 

With lines of golden light, 
And nebulae spread like jeweled lace 

On the dusky skirts of night. 
See where Jehovah's finger of flame 

Hath writ on a space-wide scroll 
A poem of light, the deathless fame 

Of heroes of the soul. 

See where Orion blazes in mid-heaven. See where 
the Pleiades light up ethereal depths. See where the 
Pole-star holds ceasele&s watch over the North. See 
where the Milky Way belts the sun-strown universe; 
and then remember, ^They that are wise shall shine 
as the brightness of the firmament; and they that 
turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and 
ever/^ 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 



